A FRUSTRATED trader has lost half her custom on some of the busiest days of the year because a main road has been flooded for nearly two weeks.

Lindsay Topping, manager at Labworth Cafe in Furtherwick Road, Canvey, slammed Essex County Council for not pumping water from the road days ago after the third round of flooding in less than six months.

Nearly a foot of water has blocked customers reaching Eastern and Western Esplanade. Rain has also caused chaos at the restaurant with repairs to the building now needed.

Manager Lindsay Topping said: “It’s really bad and getting worse.

“They are not pumping the water away and it’s definitely affecting us. No one is coming up to us because no one can get to us.”

Instead of the usual 50 customers coming in for lunch, plus more for breakfast, only 20 to 30 people went to the cafe on Friday.

Water started filling the south end of Furtherwick Road nearly two weeks ago. Now it is overflowing pavements and up to garden walls.

Miss Topping added: “We feel like we are hitting our heads against a brick wall. A few of our customers have called the council expressing their concerns.

We only opened for the first time since Christmas on Friday, but the weather has kept people away. We are struggling to get in and out ourselves, it’s not going to encourage people to come up here.

“They need to pump it but nothing has been done about it.

There’s no one to contact, everyone seems to pass the buck.”

The cafe owners are now also having to fork out for a new floor after the cafe flooded on Saturday and Monday with water running in through windows and down walls.

Miss Topping added: “It’s really frustrating. Business is hard.

It might have been alright but with a mixture of the flooded road and the bad weather it doesn’t encourage anyone to come out.”

The Echo tried to contact Essex County Council about the issue, but the authority declined to comment.

But a spokeswoman said: “We do have additional crews working due to the bad weather we are experiencing and are trying to get round and fix things as quickly as possible.”