LONG-suffering residents whose road is blocked up with the cars of 'hospital staff' face another year of misery due to red tape.

Jenner Road homeowners say their street is choked with parked cars, and claim the culprits are workers from the nearby James Paget University Hospital dodging hospital car park charges.

They have pinned hope on yellow lines to shoo the motorists away, but have been told the lines will not be drawn until 2014 - although funding is available.

Hospital bosses have put £5,000 towards the work, matched with £5,000 from the housing estate developer, Gorleston Area Committee heard on Tuesday.

But due to a 'resource problem' Norfolk County Council will not set wheels in motion until the next financial year in April 2013, and then there will be a nine-month wait while traffic reports are compiled and a consultation exercise is completed.

While lines could technically be painted in January 2014, a county officer wrote bad weather is likely in January which is not ideal for line painting.

Reading from the county report, borough council leader Trevor Wainwright said work is unlikely to start before April 2014.

He sighed: 'I will certainly be writing to them.'

A string of residents' meetings have been held over the problem, and ward councillors conducted a site visit last year.

But Gorleston ward councillor Bert Collins said: 'We've pushed this for two years and nothing has been done.'

Previous delays arose as the county council has yet to adopt the road from the developer, but Mr Wainwright said this is due to happen 'at any time' now.

And Magdalen ward councillor Brian Walker said hospital bosses have sent circular letters to staff with their pay slips, asking them not to park on the road.

Some residents who said they were not aware of previous meetings feared yellow lines would affect residents with three or four cars, those who had converted their garages to living space and those wanting space for guest parking.

But Mr Walker said: 'The solution the meetings have come up with is what's going out to consultation [yellow lines].

'If you start messing around with this we will still be talking about it in another five years time.'

If a 'significant' number of complaints is received during consultation on the yellow line scheme, the proposal will go before Norfolk County Council's cabinet at a date to be confirmed.

Claydon ward councillor Colleen Walker said officers are doing all they can.

'I've a daughter who lives near Jenner Road, so I've got an added reason to want to push the scheme,' she said. 'But you shouldn't damn them as they can only work with what they've got.'

Gorleston's car parking steering committee held a further meeting on the issue at MESH centre yesterday.