Bungling West Sussex highways bosses today apologised for spending £300 painting lines on a road - then digging it up.

But West Sussex County Council tried to play down as "minimal" the estimated £300 cost to the taxpayer.

Worthing resident Alan Riley was astonished to see workmen relining the A259 Littlehampton Road in Worthing, near the North Star pub, only for road gangs to arrive a fortnight later, dig up the surface and re-tarmac it.

He said: "Could the county council please tell me if this is why council tax is going so high this year, to help pay for the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

"Or is it because we are getting near the end of the financial year and they have some spare cash to waste, as is the norm for this council?"

A spokesman for the county council, which has raised council tax this year by 18.5 per cent, said the cost was minimal and when pressed further estimated it to be around £300.

He added: "There was a breakdown in communications over this safety work which we will endeavour to make sure does not happen again.

"A safety check showed that the entire length of Littlehampton Road needed re-lining but the message did not get through to the lining team that they could exclude 300 metres of the 1,500 metres because resurfacing in part of the road was also scheduled.

"It was unfortunate but the costs of re-lining the newly surfaced area will be minimal."