TRADERS stormed out of a heated meeting with Southend Council officials in an ongoing rowover flooding which wrecked homes and businesses on the seafront.

The business owners are unhappy with the council’s belief Anglian Water are solely to blame for the flooding, which hit the seafront two weeks ago after extreme rainfall.

They claim the design of the council’s City Beach scheme is partly to blame for the floods, which caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage.

There is also anger that a report into similar flooding in August 2013 has still not been published.

Martin Richardson, owner of the Happidrome arcade, in Marine Parade, said: “I just stormed out of the meeting because the council was more interested in talking about the Tesco junction improvements on the A127.

“I have been here for 20 months and I’ve only been trading for 14 months. I want the council to re-assure us that after such a major disaster they want to be doing something.”

George Zinonos, who runs Ye Old Chippy, also in Marine Parade, said: “Last year it happened and the council offered no help, so at least they are taking us seriously this time around.

“They spoke about the delay in the report coming out – but why has it taken so long? It is not freak weather and if this happens every year then we can’t be waiting for reports to come out a year down the line.”

He said the City Beach scheme was to blame, adding: “The way they have designed the camber there, the water just runs from left to right towards the business – there is nowhere for it to collect at the lowest point.” Southend Council is in control of the location and design of the drains on City Beach, while Anglian Water is in charge of the drainage and pumping systems underneath.

The authority claims it was capacity issues with the underground system which led to the flood.

Despite facing a bill for about £60,000 Mr Zinonos says he will be keeping his businesses on the seafront. His landlord has suspended his rent for the next three months, giving him breathing space to clean up and restore his business – with a re-opening in January likely