Money is still available to protect grass verges near homes in St Albans from being destroyed by parked cars.

£30,000 remains out of a budget of £150,000 set two years ago to deal with the problem in several badly-affected areas where there had been complaints from residents.

A number of improvements have been made including grasscreting - putting a concrete mesh over verges - double-height kerbs, limited waiting parking and yellow lines.

There have also been issues with illegal cross-overs where motorists regularly drive across a verge to get to a parking place.

Work has been carried out in Cottonmill Lane, Holyrood Crescent and the Five Acres and New Greens estates.

Cllr Robert Donald, chair of the city neighbourhoods committee which received a report on the issue at its last meeing, said: “Councillors regularly receive complaints from residents about their grass verges being destroyed in many streets.

“Damaged verges ruin the look of a street and spoil the quality of the whole environment for residents, particularly in the city. We have to find a better way of balancing the need for people to park their car and to protect the environment.”

He went on: “It was very encouraging to hear about the work that has been done to restore damaged verges and the substantial improvements that have been made. It is very good news we can now repair a few more verges elsewhere in the city.

“However, we know we need different solutions in different areas and must try to help residents to park responsibly in their own road or we will just cause a new problem elsewhere.”

Cllr Donald added: “Around £30,000 still has to be allocated and we need to make sure this money is directed towards the places with the worst problems once all the requests have been assessed.”

The committee report warned that a blanket ban on parking on pavements and verges covering the city would be expensive to implement. It would also probably result in a proliferation of unsightly street signage.

But a ban in a particular street can be imposed through Traffic Regulation Orders and applications can be made in writing to parkingrestrictions@stalbans.gov.uk