Newly painted parking bays have been branded “ridiculous” and a “waste of time and money”.

This is because the spaces in Quarry Hill Road, Borough Green, are substantially smaller than the cars that are parked there.

It is thought that on Monday (September 11) the faded lines along the road were repainted.

The parking bay allows for two hours free parking and is also used by several permit holders.

At some points, it is half the size of an average vehicle – only marking a metre of space from the pavement.

Faded lines at the end of the bay allude to spaces that were originally a more suitable size.

But the new markings mean all of the cars parked in the space were way over the line.

Residents Mary and Christopher Scott are both bewildered by the new paint job.

They have lived next to the bay for around seven years.

“It’s quite ridiculous,” Christopher said. “I don’t know what they think the size of a car is. It was a waste of time and money.

“It happens all the time, doesn’t it? You can’t expect every single penny of taxpayers' money to be spent wisely and judiciously.

“If they did come back and redo them, they’ll probably do it wrong again anyway.”

Mary added: “You could fit a toddler’s bike on it, that’s about it.

“Nobody sent a letter through the door or anything, it just suddenly happened.

“The cars are still parking as normal.”

Some residents were confused about whether the lines were intentional – meaning drivers should mount the kerb to fit in the space.

Homeowner Kaine Sharp said: “I haven’t seen any cars on the kerb, but I would imagine the same thing.

“It’s a small bay, you can’t really fit much in it, but I assumed it was for the lack of space on the road.”

The 22-year-old noticed the oddly-sized bay when he moved in five months ago.

“It’s quite hilarious,” he added. “I have a van, so I park further down the road to prevent it from getting hit.

“I don’t really fancy any scratches on it.”

Others believed it was an error made by the contractors hired to do the work.

Kitty Peploe says when she first moved in around seven years ago, the council decided to widen the pavement to make it safer for pedestrians.

“They never adjusted the width of the parking bay, so it was always half the parking width,” she explained.

“It didn’t really matter as much because the lines were quite faded, but now they have come back and gone over the original lines which makes it look a bit ridiculous.”

She added: “I can only assume the person that they hired was just told to go over the original lines and that is exactly what they did.

“Obviously they didn’t pay attention to the fact that the lines need updating.”

The odd-shaped space garnered a huge reaction in a local Facebook group.

The original post said: “You’ve got to park your car on its side to fit within the lines”.

One person commented: “Traffic wardens will have fun with this.”

Another said: “Must be for the new generation Noddy cars.”

A spokesman from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council said: “We’d like to thank KentOnline and local residents for bringing this to our attention.

“We’ve been to the road and inspected the repainting of parking bay lines carried out on our behalf by a contractor and clearly a mistake has been made.

“It appears that old white lines, which were in place prior to a widening of the pavement, have been gone over instead of the newer wider ones.

“We will get this put right as soon as possible and in the meantime will not be issuing any penalties for parking outside the lines.

“We welcome residents telling us when there are issues of this kind which can be reported to our technical services team at technical.services@tmbc.gov.uk.”