CAMPAIGNERS are demanding full investigations after a huge storm surge breached a seawall and damaged another.

Traders and residents in Southend and Canvey have raised serious concerns about Storm Brenden battered the south Essex seafronts.

But, Southend Council and the Environment Agency says they are working on the concerns.

Paul Thompson, owner of Pebbles Ones Cafe on Southend seafront said: “We have had particularly bad flooding and it’s nothing new.

“I think we need an investigating into what happened.

“It’s clear that we are suffering from the flooding and Southend Council needs to ensure it has emergency flood plans and officers in place.

“It seems to happen when we’ve not got anyone from the council about to help.

“We will be asking some serious questions about what went wrong.”

Joan Tiney, 69, chair of Southend Seafront Traders Association said: “I agree the sea defences do need work after the storm.

“If this is what can happen when we have storms, the council does need to look into it.

“I think it’s a difficult issue and am not sure what they would do about it.”

Marc Miller, managing director at Stockvale, parent firm of Adventure Island, said: Overall the council do a pretty good job in maintaining the sea defences considering there are seven miles of them.

“The recent problems we think are caused by a leaky wall under the pier. It just poured into Adventure Inside.

“It must have been a recent fault as we have had higher tides in the past than storm Brenden without experiencing any ingress of water.”

Canvey campaigners say more needs to be done to strength the island defences after the seawall was battered.

Patricia Tilley, 71, said: “I think this is so worrying and makes me wonder what will happen next time there is a storm like this.

“As the island residents’ numbers have increased so much we need to have stronger and better defences.”

Bosses of Adventure Island will be forced to fork out to repair a gift shop which was damaged by flooding caused by a storm surge.

Emergency works are being carried out to fix Canvey’s seawall after a huge storm surge caused severe damage.

The Environment Agency was drafted in after Storm Brendan damaged a 30-metre section of Canvey’s seawall.

Carole Mulroney, Southend councillor for environment and planning, said: “Drainage worked well in this area, and as the tide receded, so did the surface water on Western Esplanade.

“Damage was caused to a small part of the sea wall by Puglies kiosk, and access to a small area of pavement and beach there has been temporarily restricted.

“We are now organising a repair to the damage there with our contractors. We are also aware of concerns raised and we will be looking into these.”

Last summer the Environment Agency announced works are now underway on a £130,000 project to improve Canvey’s seafront seawall defences, from Thorney Bay to the Island Yacht Club.

The work is funded through the TEAM2100 programme.