EMERGENCY power cable repairs are causing traffic chaos on one of Inverclyde’s busiest streets.

ScottishPower dug up Eldon Street on Sunday when a fault was detected with an underground cable.

Temporary traffic lights were put up just past the Newark Street junction resulting in delays of around 10 minutes in each direction.

Several motorists contacted the Tele to complain that there was no-one manually operating the lights on Monday morning.

One said: “The lights were not synchronised with the nearby lights at Manor Crescent and along at the Co-op on Cardwell Road, so that was making things even worse.

“It was causing serious delays for cars and buses, and certainly wasn’t the ideal start to a Monday morning.”

ScottishPower apologised for not having the lights manually operated yesterday morning.

A spokesperson said: “Rush-hour traffic management was put in place by yesterday evening to try to ease the delays.”

No-one lost power to homes or businesses as a result of the cable fault, which had been detected by the power company’s monitoring systems.

The spokesperson added: “This was an emergency repair. We hope to be off site by this evening but don’t know if this will be before the rush-hour.”

Another motorist said the roadworks had ‘made a bad situation even worse’ for drivers between Greenock and Gourock.

He said: “The Manor Crescent lights already cause tailbacks along Eldon Street towards Greenock at peak times and drivers are using Newark Street as a ‘rat run’ to get past the queues and then down into Eldon Street at the junction opposite Battery Park.

“Drivers stop to let them out at the junction, and that just adds to the delays.”