Flood-prone Pembroke businesses are counting the cost after a persistent backlog of dirty water once again drowned a section of Cemetery Lane.

“It’s never been this bad,” said Jennifer McCarron, of Animal and Garden House, surveying the days-old water in front of her shop.

“This last couple of weeks, it floods as soon as it rains, and it just sits there for days. It’s had a big impact on our business.”

Worse hit was the neighbouring door and window outlet, Treecon, where trucks were grounded yesterday and customers couldn’t get in.

“We lost one of our older trucks the other day,” said businessman Keith Rowntree: the vehicle had to be scrapped after water flooded its engine.

“It’s brackish water from the canal, too; it’s got salt, so you wouldn’t want to drive through it.”

The low-lying stretches along Pembroke Canal, which empties into the sea via Mill Creek, constantly fall victim to flooding — but both businesses said drainage recently had been particularly bad.

A downpour on August 24 left standing water in the road for nearly a week, Ms McCarron said.

Former MP for the area Wayne Perinchief said it would fall on affected businesses to “bite the bullet” and deal with it themselves.

“The Government will not foot the bill because it runs through commercial and private areas,” said Mr Perinchief, who is familiar with the problem going back “decades”.

“It’s never been resolved. They’ve got to get their heads together and put in a pump over a one-way dam.”

Rainy weather kept the road under water yesterday, and the next month’s autumnal high tides will also put drainage to the test.