A TERRIFIED trader who spent £15,000 protecting his seafront business from flooding slept on the floor as he tried to keep gushing rain water at bay.

While flood barriers and shop shutters stopped floods destroying equipment in the Happidrome arcade, in Marine Parade, Southend, burst drains left the front part of the building covered in sewage.

Traders claim drainage along the seafront has struggled to cope since City Beach was unveiled in 2011, with original plans for a hydraulic system being altered at last minute.

Martin Richardson, from the arcade, which was badly flooded in both 2013 and 2014, said: “We live on tenterhooks. I was here all night on weather watch, sleeping in the middle of the arcade floor.

“The barriers cost £15,000 to install and it costs me the same every year in lost revenue. I can’t place any machines where the new walls are.

“Luckily everything was behind the flood barriers this time and we had the shutters down so it slowed the water, which was almost 12ins.

“The shop was left with a coating of thick black sewage."

The arcade was closed yesterday, but Mr Richardson is confident he can reopen today.

In 2013 the Happidrome had to close for eight months after it was devastated by floods.

Paul Thompson, chairman of Southend Seafront Traders Association, said: “This is the fifth time the seafront has flooded since city beach was built. The council are not doing enough.

"The roads are supposed to be closed but they aren’t. The cars are washing water into businesses.

“The question for the council is whether they deviated from the original hydraulic drain network that was supposed to be built with City Beach.”

In response to claims about alterations to the proposed drainage system at City Beach, a Southend Council spokesman said: “When City Beach was built, we went through a formal process of sending designs for the review to Anglian Water and other relevant agencies.

"As a result of this, amendments to the original designs were made and signed off by Anglian Water, that they agreed provided a fully acceptable solution for drainage on the seafront.

“The drainage at City Beach performs well during normal and heavy rainfall. However, it can struggle during extreme weather events, as indeed any drainage system would. As you are aware, there have been several other flooding incidents around the town today.”

Council leader John Lamb added: “Our highways team assisted by assessing surface water flooding along Marine Parade with the remit of closing it if deemed necessary. As the water quickly abated, the road did not need to be closed."

Can the area cope?

WITH Southend seafront flooded again, and two new developments on the horizon, it begs the question of whether the area can handle it. 

Paul Thompson, the chairman of Southend Seafront Traders Association, said: “The system, even though new, can’t cope. Adding more businesses to the existing system is clearly not going to work."

Martin Richardson, owner of the Happidrome arcade, added: “Its crazy - who would want to build here? The council cannot let more houses, flats and shops be built around here, it just can’t happen."

The two developments are Marine Plaza and Turnstone Estates’ £50million Seaway development. 

Tom Defty, from Essex Weather Centre, said he had sympathy for the traders who were affected. 

He added: “I think we will be having this kind of weather every year now for 10 years. We have had weather like this since 2013 and councils claim this is freak weather that we see every 50 to 200 years but it is not as we are having it every year now. 

“We need to be looking at prevention now for future years rather than looking at the cause of it. We had about 50mm of rain in one day which is about one month’s worth of rain, but it really is not that much- we should be able to deal with this.”