Strange yellow lines were 'innovative' (From Oxford Mail)

Strange yellow lines were 'innovative'

HEADINGTON’S confusing double yellow lines were called “innovative” by the designers who gave them the go-ahead.

Headington councillor Ruth Wilkinson with the lines in Bickerton Road

But correspondence obtained by the Oxford Mail under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed officers didn’t feel the need to put the scheme past senior council staff or councillors.

Residents were left confused earlier this year after the lines were painted across some streets in Headington as part of the wider scheme.

But just a few hours after people living nearby labelled them confusing, and a traffic expert said he did could not understand what they were for, traffic officials painted them out.

In one of the emails, a highways officer said the scheme was “certainly innovative” and “could be very effective”.

The officer behind the scheme said they had decided to go ahead with the idea in order to gain “more experience” of it, adding the scheme was in place in other places such as High Street and St Aldate’s, without any complaints.

The officer wrote: “Given the precedents in other parts of Oxford I didn’t feel this needed to be escalated to senior officers or members.”

They were eventually blacked out at a cost of around £690.