[Closed] Cycle lane road marking confusion

I feel like I should know the answer to this but Ive just spent 20 mins on Google and the Highway Code website and Im none the wiser, the only thing I do know is that the old joke with the punchline "hes a bit of a cycle path" is still funny

OK the horrible narrow bit of my commute has just been resurfaced
Before this there were some signs and road markings which were too knackered to have ever been any use

Since last week I have new shiny tarmac, a few red bits and some lovely white and yellow lines

My problem is Im completely unsure of what it all means

For pretty much all of the 2km stretch in question there is a single white line seperating the main road carriageway from the 1m width cycle path at the edge of the road, when it goes past side roads the cycle path has been made red - the rest of the time its normal tarmac like the rest of the carriageway

For a 700m or so stretch theres a parking restriction in peak hours but outside of this the signs say you can legally park, the cycle lane is black regular tarmac here and the line marking it on the road surface is solid

So my questions are as follows:

1) What does it mean if the cycle lane is red or just normal black tarmac?

2) I thought a solid white line marking the cycle lane meant cars couldnt ever drive into it but for a large part of my commute the signs say they can actually park up

3) 2 pieces of tarmac walk into a bar..........

But seriously whats going on?

Whats the difference between a red bit of tarmac on the cycle lane and regular black?
I thought a solid white line meant no cars could cross it yet for a big stretch parking is allowed out of peak hours - should it be dotted here?

Cheers