Angry West Kilbride residents say they are facing a 14-mile detour to get to the local shops and the village school because of a Scottish Power road closure.

Work is being carried out to install power to the planned Braidlaw Rise development on the outskirts of the village.

Scottish Power has closed a section of Ardrossan Road in West Kilbride for 10 days to allow the work to go ahead - without the residents being informed.

But the closure has cut off nearby Cubrieshaw Park from the rest of the village. That means drivers have to take the B road to Ardrossan and head back along the A78 just to drive their kids to school or nip to the shops.

Westpoint Construction, who are carrying out the development, today apologised to residents who were affected by the road closure for the lack of notice.

One resident told us: "We had no warning about this before they closed the road. It is a seven mile detour each way to get to and from the village. There is no access at all, including for emergency vehicles.

"The work is being carried out by Scottish Power to get electricity access to the Braidlaw Rise development. But it has cut us off.

"I'd a large percentage of residents of Cubrieshaw Park are aged 75 or over and they are expected to drive over a single track B road. People are not happy.

"Scottish Power has not notified us about this work. It's not right."

The Braidlaw Rise development will see 35 three-bedroom bungalows and four and five-bedroom detached homes build on the Ardrossan Road site. The work on the site is being carried out by Westpoint Homes.

The road is set to be closed until September 26.

In a letter to residents today (Monday), Westpoint Construction's contract manager Mike Reilly said: "To enable the connection of a temporary power supply to our development at Braidlaw Rise, West Kilbride, an application was granted to Scottish Power to permit the current, temporary road closure and diversion to be put in place.

"We apologise that this information was not communicated to residents in advance, noting that, contrary to their signage, Scottish Power are anticipating that the connection work is likely to take under one week to complete.

"We would like to offer our sincere thanks for your forbearance and underatanding in this matter and during the remainder of our construction programme with our apologies, once again, for the belated communication of the above."

A spokesperson for SP Energy Networks said: "We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by these essential works to connect a new housing development to the electricity network.

"Temporary traffic management arrangements were approved for use between Monday 18 September and Friday 29 September, and signage advising of this was put in place on Monday,1 September. 11

"We can reassure all local residents that we’re doing everything we can to complete the works as quickly as possible, which may allow the road to reopen at an earlier date.

"We apologise again for any inconvenience in the meantime."