A CONCERNED Greenock resident who is campaigning for a change to be made at one of the town's busiest roundabouts has raised his case directly with roads chiefs.

Hamid Manafi, 52, wants to see alterations on the layout surrounding the roundabout on the A78 Inverkip and Dunlop Street, known as the Barrs Cottage roundabout.

It suffers from frequent bottlenecks of traffic at peak times during the day.

Hamid says queues back up along Dunlop Street between 4-6pm every afternoon due to the way the roundabout ahead of it is organised.

He says roads chiefs should make the approach road from Dunlop Street a 'filter lane', with a solid white line giving drivers priority.

Mr Manafi claims this would ease overall traffic congestion in the area and make traffic flow more easily at the roundabout.

He told the Tele: "It wouldn't take a lot of money to do it, and I think it would solve the problem.

"Drivers have to wait for a long time due to cars mostly coming from the cemetery area and heading up towards the hospital.

"Adding a white line and extending it right up towards where the traffic merges further along the road would help. 

"To me it's common sense."

For Hamid's suggestion to work, the left lane for traffic coming from the cemetery approach to the roundabout would also have to be changed to a left-only, and the right lane would be a straight ahead or right turn.

Greenock Telegraph:
Hamid has approached trunk roads management firm Amey about his suggestion but he says that they told him the change could increase traffic congestion in the area. 

He added: "Amey said there would be more traffic but I don't understand why that would be. 

"Most drivers never use the right lane as they don't want to merge further up the road. 

"Having the two lanes going in the same direction is holding everything up at the moment and making the traffic build up.

"A solid white line would keep the traffic flowing."

The Telegraph approached Amey for comment but has not yet received a response.