Villagers thought when their main road was being resurfaced for a second time in three weeks it was to correct the colour.

But they have been left baffled as to why the surface is still a reddy brown shade when the parish council had agreed standard black would be best.

Michael Norman, vice chairman of Boxford Parish Council, said Suffolk County Council had not consulted them about the colour in advance, but when they realised it was not “the black stuff” they made their views known.

However, when workmen began to redo the job last week, Mr Norman said he realised the parish council had been ignored.

He said: “I think they came up with the idea being an oldy worldy village we would appreciate a different colour, but the first lot that went down, the specification of the chips was apparently wrong. It’s the same colour that it was before.”

A spokeswoman for Suffolk County Council said initially gravel had been used which was the wrong grading - rather than the wrong colour - which meant it was coming out in clumps, and that was then replaced with granite.

She said it was to a specification to fit in with the natural surroundings, adding it had been used in other historic Suffolk locations such as Bildeston.

She said: “Nobody chose the wrong stone. There was a problem with the stone. The contractor informed us about it.”

A spokeswoman for the contractor Carillion said: “We used the specification the council asked us to. They set the specification for the road in terms of what material we should use and that’s what we have used.”

Mr Norman, who used to transport road resurfacing materials, claimed the whole thing was “a proper cock-up”.

The county council spokeswoman assured people the second resurfacing was at no extra cost to the taxpayer. The roadworks in Broad Street and Ellis Street are due to finish today.