Flooding outside a row of shops in Bushey is being ignored by Hertfordshire County Council despite years of complaints, says a former councillor.

Inadequate drainage outside the parade in Harcourt Road means a giant puddle forms in the road during wet weather.

One shopkeeper says customers passing his butcher’s shop or using the ATM outside Tesco Express are regularly showered by drivers who do not see the swathe of stagnant water.

Neil Shallis, of N J Shallis Butcher’s, said: “It is a nightmare. The cars don’t see it until they’re over the speed bump and anyone using the cash machine gets soaked.

“It is something that needs addressing – the council has to do something. We have had complaints from customers that they are getting wet, particularly elderly people.”

A Hertfordshire County Council representative said this week the authority hoped to resolve the issue if provision was made in this year’s budget.

This, he said, was something the authority would not know until the budget was approved in the next few weeks.

But Robert Gamble, a Bushey resident and former member of Hertsmere Borough Council, claims the county is failing to deal with the issue that was last reported by the Watford Observer in June 2011.

The former Liberal Democrat councillor, who claims to have been demanding the council take action for more than four years, said: “I’m at a loss – it seems they have no intention of doing anything. We have been emailing them for years – they keep saying they have a plan but I’m sceptical.”