ROADS bosses are in the firing line after flooding chaos struck yet again in Inverclyde and closed the district's main road because a sewer had become 'overwhelmed' amid a downpour.

The A8 had to be shut in both directions at East Hamilton Street on Tuesday night as a result of the serious infrastructure issue, which heaped further misery on motorists and public transport passengers.

Major local disruption ensued, despite a detailed investigation into the severe overflow issues having been carried out last year.

MSP Stuart McMillan today hit out after the latest flooding fiasco.

He said: "I am sick and tired of this persistent issue.

"For it to happen in midsummer just rubs salt into the wound.

"Yes we have had significant rainfall recently, but the drainage system needs to be able to cope.

"We live in an area with heavy rainfall all year round, so better maintenance and increased capacity needs to happen."

Transport Scotland said that the road was closed in both directions between Ratho Street and Gibshill Road 'due to the Scottish Water combined sewer becoming overwhelmed and flooding the carriageway'.

A spokesman for the agency added: "A local diversion was in place until the flooding was cleared.

"A westbound lane closure remained on Wednesday while Scottish Water arranged for the repair of the damage to the existing Scottish Water manholes."

MSP Mr McMillan said: "This is the reason why I have been calling for and making representations to Transport Scotland to building some form of bypass or relief road in and around the A8.

"Transport Scotland, Inverclyde Council and Scottish Water undertook a detailed piece of work which was finalised at the end of last year - an Integrated Catchment Study.

"This is to better understand the drainage system locally, where flooding occurs and how water flows from higher to lower ground.

"While Covid-19 will ultimately have slowed any works which were to happen as a result of the survey, and there may have been less cleaning of the gullies in the local roads this year, I would expect significant progress to be made by late autumn.

"We do not want to face another winter of flooding along one of our many transport arteries.

"I have contacted Transport Scotland today to ascertain why exactly this flooding occurred."

Scotland TranServ maintain the road for Transport Scotland.

Their spokesperson said: "Following extremely heavy rain, surface water flooded the gulleys on the A8 trunk road at Greenock.

"In order to protect the safety of all road users, it was necessary to close one lane until Scottish Water were able to replace the gully heads on the road."

A spokesman for Scottish Water said: "There has been a lot of surface water due to the heavy rainfall which is being experienced throughout Scotland.

"We are aware that there are many areas affected and our teams are out investigating, in this case working with Inverclyde Council and carrying out checks to confirm our infrastructure in the area is working as it should."