Storm water caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to businesses in Hove and Portslade despite a £100,000 flood defence scheme.

Staff were left counting the cost after the downpour on Tuesday night and were angry the new sewer works in Wellington Road and North Street in Portslade, proved ineffective.

Doug Clarke, owner of Great Fireplaces in Church Road, Hove, was one of the worst affected.

He said: "We have got sewage in the showrooms and the damage runs to about £40,000. When it started raining heavily there was nothing we could do but watch as the water reached more than a metre deep."

Mr Clarke said these were the second big rains since the new sewer pipes were laid in September 1998 and both times he had been flooded.

He is angry at what he claims to be Southern Water's "couldn't care less" attitude.

He said: "It's like banging your head against a brick wall. All they say is it's not their fault.

"But if their new pipes put in to reduce flooding don't work, it represents a huge waste of customers' money."

Dave Hatchard, of Thomas Hatchard Precision Engineering, Wellington Road, took photographs of the water to show Southern Water officials.

He said: "The road was completely flooded. We were only okay because there are steps up to our premises. They spent weeks digging up the area and with the first major rain it flooded again. It's ridiculous."

Hopes were high that the extra 200 yards of sewer pipe in the area would help reduce flooding. At the time project manager Bill Jefferies said: "This scheme will significantly decrease the risk of flooding."

But Southern Water says the surface water sewer pipe is not working because gulleys to drain the water off the roads have not been fitted by Brighton and Hove Council.

Spokeswoman Jane Kelly said: "We have put a new sewer system there to take away surface water. However, without the gulleys, the water can't get off the road and into the system quick enough to prevent flooding and the sewage system backing up."

Ms Kelly said engineers were confident once this work was completed the system should cope with excess surface water.

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove Council said: "We put in new drainage to complement the work done by Southern Water back in 1998. The company came back to us recently and said they were experiencing problems with the design and as a result we plan to put a new row of gulleys on Church Road."

She said this work had been scheduled for some time and is due to take place in August.