A BP garage on the A22 main road in Surrey has narrowly avoided being flooded after the recent storms and has lost much of its trade after the deluge closed the highway.

Sega Para, manager of the service station at Whyteleaf, said the floods had closed the road just down from his site on Wednesday, and the water had only stopped rising when it reached his exit and was still there on Friday

Although his station was still open he said there was none of the usual passing business on the busy main route out of London, and only local people were using it.

Sega said he has been continually asking the authorities when they would be able to reopen the road but he had not been able to get an answer, and with further storms forecast for Friday evening it looked as if the closure would continue into the weekend.

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