People living in Birch Avenue say the situation is "causing chaos" for drivers trying to get to their houses because Transco has been digging up one side of the road while Scottish Power has been working on the other.

Geoff Dutton said the companies should have discussed plans to dig up the road in order to cause the least possible disruption for residents.

He added: "For four days we haven't been able to drive down our street never mind park outside our own houses.

"We weren't given any notice that this work was going to take place and you'd have thought they could have sorted something out so they weren't working at the same time.

"It's absolute chaos and something needs to be done so it doesn't happen again."

A spokesman for Core Utility Solutions, which is a subsidiary group of Scottish Power, said: "We are committed to meeting customer deadlines and we aim to do that in the best and most efficient way we can.

"We were unaware when we arrived in Birch Avenue that there would be any other company working on the road at the same time."

A spokesman for Transco said: "We were given dates for the work to be carried out and we were working on the left hand side of the road.

"We only had a complaint from one customer regarding access to his drive and that was sorted out immediately.

"The major work has now been finished and we will be filling in the holes this week."