CASH and carry boss Ansar Ali is pleading for urgent action as his premises are still being flooded eight months after water bosses promised local drainage problems were solved.

His premises were among several in Dickens Street, Audley, hit by deluges four times in two months last year.

The road had to be closed preventing supplies and customers from getting to his A and J Cash and Carry store.

After intervention by Blackburn MP Jack Straw, United Utlities took measures to tackle the problems caused by work to repair a collapsed sewer and improve the drainage system.

They promised a compensation process for companies affected, but Now Mr Ali said his firm’s future is under threat because his store is being inundated every time it rains heavily.

He said: “In January they promised everything was sorted and there would be compensation for us. It’s not been sorted for my business and there has been no sign of compensation.

“Engineers have told me a pipe was not properly connected to my premises so when it pours down it leaks and my cash and carry gets flooded.

“Now it’s started raining heavily again and I have been flooded several times in recent days.

“It makes a dreadful mess and I can’t have customers in when the shop is in that state. I can’t go on like this.”

Mr Straw’s constituency secretary Damian Talbot, who chaired a meeting between traders and United Utilities in December, said: “If Mr Ali gets in touch, I will take the issue up with United Utilities as a matter of urgency.”

A United Utilities spokesman said the company was investigating.