Council workers painted road markings on a Neath street then days later covered them with tarmac.
The double yellow lines and central road lines were freshly painted along Stratton Way in Neath Abbey last week, but to the surprise of residents workers appeared on the street once again a few days later.
On this occasion they carried out a major resurfacing work, laying a new layer of tarmac along the road.
The tarmac covered the freshly-painted markings completely, making the work to paint them entirely futile.
Read more: Teenager was part of £500,000 jewellery burglary gang which raided more than 70 homes
Stratton Way resident Steve Edwards said: "This could happen with any organisation, but the road was not in bad condition.
"I don’t know if they’ve had complaints about it; I doubt it very much as I drive over that road every day with no issues at all.
"But once they noticed they had made the error, which is before they did the overlay, they could have diverted the resurfacing to a road that needed it more, rather than make fools of themselves and wasting money".
Stratton Way falls into Dyffryn ward. Its councillor Martyn Peters said: "I have visited the street with highways department and met with residents and officers, and the officer who dealt with it held his hand up and admitted his mistake.
"It should not have happened but the officer took it on the chin and it has been rectified, with the lines being painted back on.
"It was to do with a shortage of staff and a change of staff, but there should be no charge to the tax-payer, because it will be clawed back".
The average property on the street is in council tax band D, costing residents £1,994.10 annually.
Neath Port Talbot Council have yet to respond to how much the error would have cost.
But a spokesman for the authority said: “The coordination issue happened due to staff turnover in our Network Management section and changes to our works programme driven by a number of factors.”
Get stories like this straight to your inbox with our newsletters.
