INVERCLYDE will bid for millions of pounds to help tackle flooding problems after councillors agreed to the application yesterday.

The Scottish Government has invited applications for the funding of new projects, and it’s hoped the district will win around £3m.

The money would be used for 16 schemes at flooding hot spots where the land is either owned or controlled by Inverclyde Council, including the West Station in Greenock and Bouverie Burn in Port Glasgow.

There is no certainty that Inverclyde will get the cash and Municipal Buildings bosses should know by spring if their proposal has been successful.

The council’s head of environmental and commercial services, Ian Moffat, said the aim of the proposed works was not just to prevent flooding alone. He said: “Alleviating flooding would make the area more attractive and have a major impact on prolonging the life of the roads network by minimising damage.” During yesterday’s full council meeting, councillors praised Mr Moffat and his team for the ‘unseen’ work they have done in all weathers to try to prevent flooding by clearing culverts and gullies.

The bid is for a total of £3,193,898 and, if successful, Inverclyde would have to come up with a fifth of that sum — £638,780.

This would be funded from £1m already set aside for flooding.

The rest of the £1m would be used on other high profile flooding solutions which are not part of the application to Edinburgh.

Council leader Stephen McCabe said the Scottish Government tended to favour spending flooding money on major schemes in one location rather than a series of smaller ones.

He said: “We need to sound a note of caution on the chances of our bid being successful, even ‘though we have a comprehensive list which would go a long way to dealing with our issues.” Other areas included in Inverclyde’s application are Delling Burn, Carts Burn at Crescent Street, Lady Burn at Aberfoyle Road and King’s Glen, Brougham Street at the railway bridge, pictured above, Coves Burn at Steel Street and Glenmosston in Kilmacolm.

The projects include fitting new trash screens, drainage gullies, channels, gullies and pipes and increasing the size of pipes.

Technical assessments of all applications will be carried out over the next couple of months.