A LARGS business owner says the closure of the 'vital' A78 road over Easter cost his business over £2,000 last year - and that a repeat must be avoided.

Bagel Basket owner Stewart Currie is pleading with Transerv bosses to 'see sense' and carry out the works during a period which doesn't clash with the school holidays.

The businessman says that planning the works over Easter last year cost town businesses thousands of pounds as they lost out on crucial custom.

Transerv have revealed proposals to carry out the works between Largs and Wemyss Bay over the next few months, however an official date is yet to be fixed.

Stewart said: "Around 50 per cent of my customers come down that route from Greenock. Closing the road during one of the busiest weekends of the year hits us and other local businesses hard.

"If there is good weather like last year we would have three times the amount of trade.

"How can this be a plausible decision that is repeated after last year? The road closure must have easily cost me over £2,000 in lost takings.

"The work they carried out in 2018 wasn't even completely finished and there are still potholes. They are lucky we haven't had a bad winter or the condition of the stretch would be even worse.

"I completely understand that the work needs to be done, but there is no sense in it being during the town's busiest period."

Last year Largs suffered three weekends of road closures, causing chaos and tailbacks over Easter.

However despite the previous disruption, a closure between Wemyss Bay and Largs over the holiday break has still not been ruled out.

A Scotland TranServ spokesperson said: “Scotland TranServ is currently consulting the local authority, emergency services and key stakeholders on the scheduling of proposed resurfacing works for the A78.

"We have already met with a number of community councils in the area, and together we are working to schedule our resurfacing programme for the months ahead, to reduce the impact on local communities and businesses."

The scheduled works include the A78 Ashcraigs resurfacing and A78 Ashcraigs to Knock Castle resurfacing, which requires full road closure.

The utility company say that the only way that the repairs north of Largs can be carried out is through a total road closure due to the insufficient widths for a convoy system.