Shop owners have received an apology from Thames Water over flooding outside their businesses that has been driving customers away since January.

A leaking water main caused the problem outside shops in High Road, Woodford Green for two months ­despite several visits from Thames Water officers.

The leaking pipe was for clean water not sewerage.

Thames Water said that it had now fixed the problem but shop owners were reserving judgement before accepting that the flooding was over.

The drop down kerb meant water overflowed from the gutter onto the pavement which shop owners said put their customers off from entering.

Thames Water visited on five separate occasions. They said that for them to reach the leak they had to dig holes to get to the pipes and ­installed temporary traffic lights in the road while ­attempting to fix the issue.

Cllr Richard Hoskins (Liberal Democrats, Church End), said: “This is something that should have been dealt with a long time ago.”

Scott’s hairdressers owner, Scott Sanders, said: “I hope it’s over now as I have had a lot of customers being late to their booking and more cancellations as many cannot be bothered to go through this extra set of lights.”

Whistle ‘N’ Flute and neighbouring dry-cleaners Laundry Lounge also expressed concerns.

Yesterday, a Thames Water spokesman told the Recorder: “Our teams repaired a leak on a clean water pipe on Tuesday.

“We’re sorry that it took us some time to trace where the leak was coming from, but we had to be certain of where the problem was so that we did not have to dig up any more sections of the road and pavement than was necessary.”