The scene in South End Green as the gulleys got blocked again [David Douglas]

IT was groundhog day in South End Green yesterday (Wednesday) as the road was turned into a river after a deluge of rain.

The wet prelude to the expected arrival of Storm Ciarán left residents and business owners close to Hampstead Heath overground station bailing out water.

It is the latest in a series of floods in recent years and incidents which have seen the area submerged in water, often due to drains being clogged with uncleared leaves.

Former Conservative councillor Don Williams could be heard shouting ‘where are Camden Council?’ as staff from the Tory office in Heath Hurst Road tried to unblock the gulleys.

Rafique Uddin, manager at Paradise Indian restaurant, said water had also rushed into his restaurant on Tuesday night at around 11pm and then again at 11am yesterday, forcing it to close and miss the lunchtime trade.

He said: “Any time there is heavy rain, flooding happens in South End Green. It happens many times a year. Everybody notices it apart from the council. Water was going down into the basement. The carpet is damp now. We are waiting for it to be professionally cleaned, but we might have to replace the carpet which will be costly.”

There was a similar story at the Mimmo La Bufala restaurant. One of the owners, who did not want to be named, said: “It floods at least a few times every winter for the past three years. Yesterday we put a kind of special fence on the door, which reduced the impact of the water.

“This morning we were in the street cleaning the drain outside, but the council is supposed to do that. They don’t do anything. It shouldn’t be left to the restaurants.”

They added: “Last year [the flooding] ruined the wooden floor, so that’s when we bought the special barriers, to help because it seems to be quite a frequent thing. We had to evacuate all the customers out through the back door because they couldn’t get out the front.”

Omer Bingol, from Pedicure Dog Grooming, said it had not been affected by this week’s flooding this time around as they had recently paid to have their pipes flushed. “We’ve been here for nine months,” he said. “We’re quite new here but on the fourth month we were hit by a flood. We had to change the tiles and close for three days, which was an extra cost.”

Replacing the tiles and flushing the drains cost him £1,000.

Estate agent Jonathan Bergman called for a better drainage system.

He said: “This is a repeat of what happened last year. I called the fire brigade but the flooding went as quickly as it came. There were people climbing out of a café’s windows because the floor was flooded. There were about seven or eight people sticking poles down drains trying to stop it clogging up. It would be funny if it wasn’t quite so serious.”

Mr Bergman added: “There are plans to start putting in drainage in South Hill Park area so that water will drain better. It’s just, when are they starting it? The sooner the better.” Just last week, the council outlined proposals to remove parking bays on Parliament Hill and replace them with two “rain gardens” which will collect and store surface water, alleviating flooding.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “In the South End Green area we are soon to install ‘rain gardens’, which are systems of on-street planting and extra drainage to help prevent water running off, helping prevent drains being overwhelmed and water remaining on the surface instead. We are also combining these works with those by the gas company Cadent, to save two weeks’ worth of disruption to local residents.

“The Camden-managed drains at South End Green were cleared just two weeks ago, but in light of debris swept into them in the heavy rain the council will shortly undertake another clean at this location. To prepare for the yellow weather warning this week, Camden Council is actively monitoring all higher risk areas and our gully crews are inspecting all drains to ensure they are free of leaves and debris. We also have additional crews on standby if needed.”

There were weather warnings for much of London and the south east last night due to the predicted arrival of Storm Ciarán around the time the New Journal went to press.

Strong winds and downpours were being forecast for the rest of today (Thursday) and into Friday, with warnings that properties could be damaged, sending debris flying. Transport services are expected to be severely disrupted, while there were concerns for how trees would fare against gusts of up to 90 miles per hour.