ROADS and council bosses have reacted to criticism they faced after major flooding brought Inverclyde to a standstill yesterday.

Traffic was unable to pass along parts of the A8, above, and A78 through the district because of heavy overnight rainfall which turned roads into rivers, with many members of the public pinpointing fallen and uncleared leaves for blocking drains and causing water build-ups.

The rail network was also badly affected, with Greenock West Station, above right, closed off completely and services on the Gourock and Wemyss Bay to Glasgow lines severely disrupted with cancellations and lengthy delays.

Local buses fared better but the excess surface water throughout Inverclyde caused serious problems for people commuting to work and children getting to school.

But bosses from trunk road operator Scotland TranServ insist they did everything possible to keep traffic flowing and re-open the A8, which was closed in both directions for some time.

Russell Rennie, contract director for Scotland TranServ, said: “Due to an exceptionally high volume of rainfall overnight in the west of Scotland the drainage systems on the A8 at East Hamilton Street were overwhelmed; resulting in a degree of localised flooding on the trunk road.

“Scotland TranServ worked closely with Inverclyde Council and our partners to reopen the trunk road as quickly as possible, ensuring delays were kept to a minimum.” Council officials say plans to tackle major flooding problems, particularly in central Greenock, are progressing in part thanks to nearly £1.8 million of Scottish Government funding.

But local authority chiefs say the cash only goes some of the way towards preventing major flooding issues in the future — and that it is up to trunk road chiefs to sort out the A8 and A78.

A council spokesman said: “The torrential rainfall caused pockets of flooding right across the area.

“This is precisely the kind of situation we highlighted when the council put a bid into the national flood funding scheme.

“Though we didn’t get the full £3.2m we were looking for, we did manage to secure £1.79m — 79 per cent — funding towards the estimated cost of the £2.2m required for the Greenock Central flooding scheme.

“That money is being put to delivering a number of flood alleviation works contained within the overall scheme.

“Yesterday morning the biggest impact on travellers was the train cancellations and the closure of the main trunk roads to traffic.

“The flood funding secured for the Greenock Central scheme does not include for any flood alleviation works on the A8 and the A78 — these roads are not owned, managed or maintained by Inverclyde Council.

“The A8 and A78 flooding pushed traffic onto the side roads which are clearly not designed to handle the volume of traffic they experienced.” Local authority chiefs say staff have been hard at work over recent weeks clearing parts of the drainage system they are responsible for.

A spokesman said: “Council teams have been busy over the last few weeks clearing watercourse grills and gullies on the council network and were immediately dispatched to help alleviate any local issues across this network.

“Ultimately that volume of traffic on side roads wouldn’t be fully cleared until the trunk roads are re-opened and the council works with the police and national transport agencies to assist where we can to get that moving as quickly as possible.” On the trains, railway owners Network Rail said every effort was made to keep lines open but continued rainfall and up to six inches of water in places meant it was unsafe to allow services to run.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “We’ve seen three days of consistent heavy rain and — with the railway located below the level of surrounding land at some locations — our infrastructure has been inundated with run-off water far in excess of the volumes we would usually expect.

“We have had up to six inches of standing floodwater in places, making it unsafe to continue to run train services until the water levels have receded. Engineers have been on-site throughout monitoring conditions and working to drain water wherever possible.” A spokeswoman for train operators ScotRail added that the disruption was unavoidable but said that passengers were kept well up-to-date to allow for alternative travel arrangements to be made.

Local businesses were also affected by the flooding.

In upper Port Glasgow, the busy ‘Bardrainney shops’ on Moss Road, pictured left, were affected — with the chip shop flooded as a result of water building up at the junction with Quarry Road and Mossyde Avenue.

Mark Deegan, who owns the convenience store next door, said it was the worst flooding he has seen in more than three decades.

He told the Tele: “I’ve stayed here all my life and the shop has been here 30 years and it’s the worst I’ve seen it up here.” Greenock’s Oak Mall shopping centre also felt the effects of the overnight deluge as a result of drainage problems.

Manager Claire Jefcoate said: “The Oak Mall experienced minor flooding from the drainage system following the heavy rainfall in Greenock.

“The doors were open to the public at 8.55am, most of our tenants were unaffected and opened at 9am as usual.

“This has been reported to Scottish Water.”