WORKMEN painting lines on a main road in England left a gap around a dead badger because they said they hadn’t been trained to remove the carcass.

The dead creature had been lying on the road for almost a week before workers under contract to Hampshire County Council began work repainting the faded lines on the road.

And when the workers encountered the decaying badger, they simply worked around it – claiming they didn’t know how best to remove the creature, and because it’s the job of the New Forest District Council to remove it.

A local businessman could barely contain his shock at the workers’ simple decision to stop the double-white line a foot before the carcass, and resume it a foot away on the other side.

“I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw this poor old badger who had been there over a week,” said Kevin Maul. ”I’d seen him every day as I went by and wondered if he was going to be picked up.

“Then on Friday I drove home to see his body between the lines – they had painted the road, but left a gap where he lay.”

A contractor confirmed to the Daily Mirror that the form needed training and a licence to remove the animal from the road and had acted correctly.