COUNCIL highways bosses ordered a road to be resurfaced just days before it had to be dug up again to fix a water main – despite being warned not to by residents.
The "comedy of errors" began when Surrey County Council painted new yellow lines on Rosemary Lane in Horley six weeks ago, before returning to resurface the pothole-ridden road last week, between August 5 and 7.
But the fresh asphalt had only been in place for seven days when new contractors arrived this Tuesday to rip the road up again, this time to repair a leaking pipe which had been causing a problem for months.
When council contractors first arrived to resurface the road last week residents informed the council, urging them to delay the repairs until the leaking pipe – which was causing the road to flood – had been fixed and the puddles had receded, but they were ignored.
Although Sutton and East Surrey Water (SESW) confirmed the diagnosis, the council refused to delay the work until the pipe was repaired.
Retired pub landlord Fred Woodman, 83, who lives in the road, said: "It's just taxpayers' money going up in smoke, to fix the road so they can pull it up again.
"I got on the phone to the council and said 'you're going to waste money, why not repair the leak first?'
"The day after they laid it I went out, I knew it would happen, and there were the puddles again."
Resident Richard Woodhouse added: "We told the workmen it was a waste of time, but they said no one had told them about the leak."
Rosemary Lane is a busy thoroughfare from Station Approach to Balcombe Road, and is often used by parents collecting children from Oakwood School.
The road had fallen into disrepair and was blighted with potholes and cracks. More recently it had started to flood.
Within hours of the council laying a new surface to rectify the pothole problem, SESW had put down marks for the area which needed to be dug up again to fix the flooding.
The water was leaking from a connection between two pipes under the road.
Stuart Hyslop, from Sutton and East Surrey Water, said: "We are repairing many leaks at the moment and this one had to be rescheduled from last week [when the road repairs took place] to accommodate more urgent leak repairs and burst mains."
But residents say the problem has existed for months.
Amy Chellew, 30, added: "The puddles have been very irritating, we kept getting splashed.
"Luckily they've done the work itself quite quickly, but I don't know why they didn't do them together."
Neighbour Michael Green, 78, said: "It's been a bit of a comedy of errors.
"There needs to be someone checking on all of this; each department just does what's put in front of it."
County council spokeswoman Joy Ridley said the leak was discovered during the council's work and that it was repaired at no expense to the taxpayer.