Vehicles will no longer be allowed into the carriageway which runs underneath the municipal buildings

A meeting of councillors heard that a proposal to allow contractors using the Town Hall to have access via the tunnel has been blocked due to safety fears highlighted by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

A previous meeting of the environment and regeneration committee had decided to allow contractors such as ICE Catering to park vehicles there, after service companies had been issued with on-street parking penalties while making deliveries.

The covered thoroughfare also has allotted parking spaces for councillors and senior officials, which have been in use for decades.

But no one will have such access any more, as the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has advised that no vehicles should be in the carriageway at any time.

Chiefs say they constitute an 'unacceptable risk to safety in the event of a fire within the municipal buildings or the town hall'.

The carriageway is a fire evacuation route for both, and fire officers say that any vehicles parked in this area represent not only an obstacle to the safe passage of people using the escape route but an ignition source as well.

The SFRS added that as the UK is currently on a heightened terror risk level, no vehicles should be granted access at any time.

Councillor Chris McEleny queried why carriageway parking hadn’t been identified as a safety and terror risk before, having been used in that way for years.

A council officer told him: "It hasn’t been raised before but when it is we have to follow the advice.”

A spokesman for Inverclyde Council said: "Contractors accessing the town hall or the municipal buildings will be expected to park safely and legally in the town centre without use of the carriageway."