AN angry Largs councillor says he has been left 'frustrated' by the slow progress to address problems causing chaos at the town’s seafront carpark.

Ian Murdoch says he has been badgering council officials to come up with a fix after months of issues caused by faulty barrier systems, out of order pay machines and numberplate recognition failures.

North Ayrshire Council say that new updates to the system are proving to be successful - but Cllr Murdoch believes thousands of pounds are being lost every month.

He said: “We have paid in excess of £50,000 for the upgrade to the car park and it is honestly not much better than it was before.

“There are so many issues with the pay station not working, the barrier system not working and the camera not recognising number plates.

“It’s shambolic and it’s a total farce that we have spent so much money on a system that isn’t working properly operational.

“I have lodged a complaint with the chief executive of the council. Every time I’ve enquired I’ve been assured that the new cameras will be installed to improve things, but when is this actually happening?”

Cllr Murdoch believes that thousands of pounds are being lost as some drivers getting out for free and not paying at all.

He said: “A lot of people are getting let out for nothing. This is onn top of losing over £10,000 when we weren’t able to charge when the new system was being installed.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve lost tens of thousands of pounds due to the ongoing issues, enough that would have paid for the project already.

“We were wanting to make the car park more streamlined and efficient but we seem to have achieved the exact opposite.

“I would never have approved spending this amount of money for the issues to be just as bad, if not worse, than before.”

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of some detection issues with the camera system leading to delays at the entry/exit and pay systems.

“The cameras have very recently had a software update and testing has highlighted a significant improvement and we are now seeing a higher and more successful read rate for number plates.

“We are pleased with the results of the software upgrade but will work with our supplier to ensure the system continues to operate effectively.

"To secure further improvements, we are also in the process of updating the existing camera hardware, but unfortunately due to global supply issues this is taking longer than anticipated.”