BIRD lovers are in a flap over flooding problems at Lochwinnoch train station car park.

The road in front of the village’s station hasn’t been flooded since early January but the mess is still lingering.

Visitors and commuters have no access to the car park when it is flooded, so resort to parking at Lochwinnoch’s RSPB nature reserve or drive to Howwood.

This has had an impact on RSPB staff and visitors who are unable to leave their cars in the car park.

RSPB Lochwinnoch’s assistant manager Tabby Lamont said: “The flooding has been on and off for the past couple of weeks and the big puddle reappeared this week after a night of rain fall.

“There’s an access road to the station that has been affected and the car park, which you can’t get into.

“People aren’t able to get into the station car park so end up leaving their cars at the side or use our car park.

“The staff can’t even park never mind the visitors so the business has been suffering.

“We have been politely asking people to use alternative parking spots such as Howwood and Johnstone and most people are obliging.

“It is definitely impacting on the business as it means people have to go further afield to park.

“With the weather we have been having recently it isn’t ideal that people have to travel further to get here in the first place.

“Pumping the water away however would be costly and you need to consider if it is being pumped back into the loch, it may be polluted.

“We hope we can find the drainage and work with Scotrail and the council to install a camera to find the cause.”

The SNP’s Councillor for Johnstone North, Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch Ward, Andy Doig commented on the flooding in Lochwinnoch at a recent Council debate.

He said: “My SNP colleague, Cllr Maria Brown, raised the question of blocked drains and gullies in Langbank which cause flooding.

“And in that debate I reminded the full council that this could equally apply to Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch in my ward, due ostensibly, to decades of Labour neglect and mismanagement of council resources in the villages.

“In parts of Lochwinnoch High Street and Main Street it resembles a scene out of the science fiction classic, the Day of the Triffids, so much foliage and fauna was to be found growing out of the worst of the drains and gullies there.”

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “The issue here is water running off a local farmer’s fields and affecting the car park owned by Network Rail.

“The farmer and Network Rail are the key players in addressing this issue and they need to work together to resolve it.”

Scotrail confirmed they are now looking into the matter.

A spokesman said: “Engineers have completed work to clear the area of surface water and raise the roadway above the level of the flooding.

“We apologise to passengers for the inconvenience the flooding has caused.”