Recent years have seen a growth in visitors climbing the iconic hill and new businesses have added to the areas attraction, but lockdown saw a surge in numbers that sparked significant concerns around road safety.

Inconsiderate and dangerous parking became a particular problem with the high number of visitors meaning the existing hill car park often filling early in the day but now construction is underway that is set to double its capacity in just a few weeks.

Head of Roads and Transportation Gordon Mackay said: “We were alerted to a sharp increase in traffic issues at Tinto earlier in the year and working with our colleagues in Police Scotland we took immediate action in the interests of safety. This included traffic speed restrictions, stricter parking enforcement, additional police patrols and an awareness campaign.

“We have now started work on doubling the size of the visitor car park at the foot of the hill which will help ensure visitors can park safely and reduce issues on the approach roads. We have also added or improved signage and road markings.”

The latest improvements add to work already carried out in 2019/20 to improve road safety in the area, this included:

• High-friction material at Junction of A73 and Station Road
• Extension of solid white centrelines to discourage overtaking manoeuvres in vicinity of junction
• Vehicle activated signs warning drivers on A73 of the presence of vehicles exiting the side roads
• Signs informing drivers of the presence of the safety camera site

Chair of the council's Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, Councillor John Anderson, said: “Safety is absolutely paramount and in addition to investment in the infrastructure, driver awareness is absolutely key to improvements. Earlier in the year we saw inconsiderate and dangerous parking becoming a serious issue, creating blind-spots and forcing drivers to cross the white line markings.

“We are aware that the visitor economy is crucial to the area and we want to support people enjoying healthy outdoor activity in South Lanarkshire. That needs to be balanced with the needs of the local community which is what these improvements are aimed at achieving.”

It is expected the car park extension should be completed by late November/early December.