A woman has been left fuming after wrecking her car on a damaged bollard Croydon Council left lying in the street.

Samantha Ashley smashed the engine of her Audi on the hidden base of the bollard, which is obscured by a speed bump, as she drove home along Queens Road, Thornton Heath late on February 16.

Residents had complained to the council about the missing bollards two days earlier, but it took a call from Miss Ashley to the out of hours repair line for them to be marked with lit cones.

She said: “I’ve been outside crying my eyes out. They should have had the warning up two days ago.

“I saw about six cars get damaged while I was there, so God knows how many others have done the same thing.

“I had to literally get in the road and direct traffic to stop more crashes from happening.”

Croydon Council would not say how many complaints they had received about the damaged bollards.

A council spokeswoman said: “The council has been in contact with the motorist and will respond directly to her.”