AN ELDERLY couple’s plight when trying to cross a road at a blocked dropped kerb has prompted two councillors to pick up their own paint pots and put down yellow lines.

Henry Westrope, 82, has to push his wheelchair-bound partner Gladys Waller, 93, across Sandringham Crescent in Sandridge to catch a bus into St Albans.

But ever since Herts Highways resurfaced the road a year ago, local residents have been waiting for the double yellow line to be reinstated at the pedestrian crossing point at the junction with St Albans Road to stop careless drivers parking across it.

Local district and county councillor Geoff Churchard said: “Mr Westrope of The Berries contacted me about the missing yellow lines last April. Despite two meetings on site last year with highways officers who confirmed that the yellow lines would be reinstated, nothing has happened. Our patience has worn very thin especially when we saw yellow lines replaced at The Quadrant about two weeks ago.”

So he joined forces with district councillor Tom Clegg and painted some temporary yellow lines and put up No Parking notices at the spot, commenting: “I hope that this will remind drivers and Herts Highways of their responsibilities.”

Cllr Churchard’s wife Janet, who is also a district councillor, said the yellow lines had been painted on the other side of the road at the crossing point and it was a mystery why it had been done on one side but not the other.

She added: “A lot of people push wheelchairs and are elderly themselves and it is bad enough without not being able to cross the road.”

A spokesperson for Herts Highways said the county council contractors wanted to apologise for the delay in repainting the lines. She added: “We met with the local county councillor a couple of months ago and agreed that we would carry out the re-lining work once the weather improved in the spring, hopefully in April.”