Drivers are furious after a patchwork of yellow lines left them with a clutch of parking tickets and nowhere to park.

The yellow lines were painted on Stonegrove Estate, in Edgware, to allow safe access for lorries during the first stages of the area's regeneration.

However, when Barnet Council workers arrived to paint the lines, there were already cars parked in the road, so they only painted the lines either side of them.

Melanie Turner, 33, from Garrick Court, said the Edgware Safer Neighbour-hoods team told her traffic wardens had been instructed to use their discretion because the lines had left residents with virtually no space. However, on April 9, Ms Turner was issued a ticket.

She said: "I'm really mad, because they've left us nowhere to park. There's nowhere else near here. I think it's totally unfair and I'm not paying it."

She rejected suggestions the lines have made the area safer, citing the example of her seven-year-old neighbour, Jack Brazil, who was ploughed down in a hit-and-run incident outside her home last month.

She added: "They can afford to paint lines and send parking wardens around, but they can't afford to put speed humps in.

I've lived here for 14 years and things have never been so bad."

Sharon Rainsford, 42, from neighbouring Powis Court, received two tickets in the past week. She says she has no choice but to park in the road because she is diabetic and needs to come home from work to eat and administer insulin.

She said: "If the workmen get to the only parking spaces before us, we have to park in Edgware."

She vowed to appeal, saying the lines are not legal because the breaks are not marked by a T-bar.

A council spokeswoman said: "Due to development taking place, we needed to introduce temporary parking restrictions to maintain safety around junctions and bends and allow traffic to flow.

"We have not been able to put down yellow lines along the entirety due to parked vehicles, so we have only issued penalty charge notices in respect of vehicles where the restrictions are clearly marked."

She added: "We expect to lift the restrictions shortly and remove the yellow lines."