A FUMING shopkeeper says his business is being drowned out by flood water as nobody is willing to take responsibility for the problem.

Father-of-three Hussein Cicek, 50, runs All You Want Supermarket in High Road, South Woodford, but every time it rains the entrance to his store becomes a "swimming pool" as the outside storm drain cannot handle the deluge.

But when he complains about the mess Mr Cicek claims Redbridge Council and Thames Water just blame each other and both refuse to tackle the rising tide.

He said: "We are losing business as people do not want to walk through this water and will just go across the road instead.

"Sometimes there's a foot of water and it smells very bad. It's been like this since we first opened nearly two years ago.

"This is a family business and at this time with the credit crunch its the last thing that we need. The council and Thames Water just blame each other and do nothing."

A Thames Water spokesman said: "We don't appear to have a flood water drain on that road, we have one in a road nearby but not on the High Road.

"What we will do is send an engineer down there to liase with Mr Cicek and talk him through what exactly is going on there."

A council spokesman said the matter was now in hand.

He added: "Redbridge Council is aware of this problem and has been taking action to try and resolve the issue.

"The excess water has occurred due to a burst water main belonging to Thames Water. This water should be discharging through the council’s storm drain but the drain has become blocked.

"After hearing that the drain had become blocked the council sent a contractor on site but unfortunately he was unable to move the blockage as it appears that the blockage is solid.

"The council will now send workers to the area later this week so we can discover the cause of the blockage and remedy the issue."