Double yellow lines that have sprung up along the main road through Porthleven have been declared "unenforceable."

The lines have been added to the sea side of Commercial Road, which has traditionally been a popular place for cars to park, by the Porthleven Harbour and Dock Company.

Owner Trevor Osborne told the Packet he was trying to improve safety for pedestrians, after two incidents of people falling on the speed humps that had been designed to slow down traffic.

However, Cornwall councillor for the area, Andrew Wallis, has now claimed the lines actually have no legal standing and therefore no enforcement could be taken on drivers continuing to park on them.

Although Commercial Road is privately owned by Harbour & Dock, under highways law it has full public access, both pedestrian and vehicular. He said without a traffic regulation order being granted, which includes full public consultation, the lines are not legal.

Mr Wallis said: "Harbour and Dock have been advised by myself and Cornwall Council of the correct procedures, with the latter saying no such work should take place until the proper processes have been undertaken.

"In fact, Highways wrote to the Harbour & Dock asking for all work to stop until this matter had been resolved legally. The Harbour & Dock ignored this advice.

"If the Harbour and Dock had engaged with the statutory highways agency, they would have advised the best course of action, which would have avoided the chaos that is now happening along this road."

He added that legal action could be taken against the company but this would cost taxpayers a "considerable amount of money."

Mr Wallis also stressed that all other yellow lines were legal and enforceable.

In response, Mr Osborne condemned Mr Wallis for "making a fuss, which is quite unnecessary."

He said: "It would be dangerous if we just took away speed humps as quite often traffic goes along there more quickly than it should. It's exacerbated by people blocking the road by cars parking; people have to back up and that's dangerous to pedestrians because we don't have footpaths.

"I gave authority to my local team to take action to safeguard pedestrians. We did advise the council that we were undertaking to do this. We own the road, we maintain it. Unfortunately if the council are saying they wont' enforce the double yellow lines that's for them to say."

When it was pointed out that motorists were now parking in front of the shops on the other side of the road instead - which has led to some complaints over the cars making it difficult to access businesses and also to get past with prams or wheelchairs - he added: "If it doesn't work I will be the first to take away these yellow lines. But it's a shame if public media is being used just to make sure it doesn't work. It's not giving people the opportunity to behave responsibly."