Fears have been raised in Fairlie over the risk of flooding on the A78 - after a deluge on the trunk road near Largs took more than a month to fix.

Fairlie community council David Telford says he’s worried that a culvert leading from a development of new homes could “fail completely” through lack of maintenance.

Mr Telford raised his concerns after heavy rain led to a culvert becoming blocked on the A78 near the entrance to Largs Yacht Haven – a problem which wasn’t finally fixed until last week.

The News can reveal North Ayrshire Council (NAC) is seeking funding for a flood protection scheme for the Keppen Burn, which passes close to Dawn Homes’ housing development at the north end of the village.

Mr Telford previously raised questions over ownership of, and responsibility for, a ‘sustainable urban drainage system’ (SUDS) pond at the main entrance to Dawn Homes’ development.

The News revealed last month that the fence around the pond was broken and had been spotted flapping open in the wind – with Mr Telford warning that it posed a risk to children.

Dawn Homes carried out a temporary fix – but the company has now insisted that the pond was never meant to be a permanent feature, and says that in the long term drainage is NAC’s responsibility.

Mr Telford has shown the News a copy of a letter from Dawn Homes setting out the company’s position.

The letter states: “As part of our planning permission with the council, we offered to install and maintain a temporary attenuation pond whilst we were working on this site.

"We also monitored and regularly cleared a grill within the culvert which temporarily resolved the flooding.

"During this time, the council were to carry out the necessary upgrades to the culvert to prevent the flooding from becoming an issue again when we were no longer operational in the area.

"To our knowledge this hasn’t happened.

"We are at the early stages of decommissioning the temporary attenuation pond and reverting the area to its former condition and have urged the council to carry out the appropriate upgrades they agreed to and resume responsibility of the maintenance of the burn and culvert grill."

Mr Telford told the News: "Given the problem with the blocked drainage culvert at Bowencraig/Largs Marina one wonders when the Keppenburn culvert will also fail completely as a consequence of a failure to maintain or upgrade it.

"Perhaps North Ayrshire Council could elucidate?"

A spokesperson for NAC said: “As landowner, Dawn Homes has a duty to continue maintaining the drainage pond.

“The council is currently seeking funding for a flood protection scheme (FPS) for Keppen Burn through the Settlement and Distribution Group (SDG), which includes the Scottish Government, COSLA and local authority officials.

“When the SDG review is concluded we will know if we qualify for funding that will allow us to progress with the FPS.

“In the meantime, we will continue to manage sediment levels in Keppen Burn.”