AN END – of sorts – could be in sight to the traffic problems which have plagued people living in Luss for more than 30 years.

Councillors in Helensburgh and Lomond have voted in favour of a set of proposals which they hope will persuade some of the thousands of people who head for the picturesque village on the Bonnie Banks not to park on its narrow and congested streets.

Key to the proposals, which were agreed at a meeting in Helensburgh last week, will be the removal of signs on the northbound A82 directing drivers towards the south end of the village.

Members of Argyll and Bute Council’s Helensburgh and Lomond area committee hope that directing visitors to enter Luss only at the north end of the village will encourage most of the traffic to use its large pay-and-display car park, which drivers encounter almost as soon as they enter from the north.

Residents and community groups in Luss have long campaigned for a ban on visitor traffic from the streets in the centre of the village, but the area committee heard that while the council can stop certain types of vehicle – such as HGVs and buses – from using a public highway, any bid to allow residents access while barring visitors would be illegal.

Cllr Ellen Morton, the committee’s chair, said: “Our officers have told us it’s not legal to stop visitor traffic entering the village. This has been an ongoing problem for years and years and years because there doesn’t seem to be a way of keeping residents, people in outlying areas, businesses and all the other competing interests happy.”