A78 flooding talks held over Largs Yacht Haven car park

Independent North Coast councillor Ian Murdoch met representatives from trunk road maintenance firm Amey on Tuesday to discuss mitigation measures for the stretch of road near Largs Yacht Haven.

Recent flooding has forced the closure of the car park next to Largs marina to the public as the facility is submerged in places.

Cllr Murdoch told the News that Amey bosses have agreed a number of planned actions to tackle the problem.

A water pump at source will redirect water flow from the trunk road, footway and underpass, while another pump will be used to remove water from the underpass and public car park.

A temporary bus stop may also be added.

Sandbags are also to be placed at the edge of the A78 to prevent water flowing down the public footway and into the underpass.

Cllr Murdoch said: "It was good to speak to the Amey officers this morning, and I get the impression that they mean business.

"They are still looking for the source of the problem, but until that point I wanted various measures put in place in the interim to stop the car park and underpass from flooding.

"While speaking to Amey roads officers, there was a girl standing at the bus stop and cars were zooming by, and if cars had driven a bit slower and to the conditions she wouldn't have got soaked.

"One of the things I was chatting to the roads officers about was to set up a temporary bus stop, but they say with the water pumps at source, it will reduce the flow down the road. Hopefully that will therefore negate that particular issue.

"All in all it was a very positive meeting.

 "On the negative side, I don't think it should have taken two weeks and an onsite meeting with me to get it to this stage, but at least we have now got something done."

Flood scene at car park near Largs Yacht Haven (Image: Valerie Hill)

An Amey spokesperson said: "We are currently on-site with Scottish Water carrying out testing to determine the source of the flooding.

"Once testing has concluded, the required repair measures can be established."

A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council said: “We were made aware of the flooding issue and arranged for the footpath and car park to be closed to public access until the flooding issue was resolved by Amey.”