Torrential rainfall overnight on Saturday flooded the road through the village of Seaton on Sunday making it impassable. The only access to the village was via Downderry.

A solitary car was stranded in the main car park which was completely under water including the surrounding greens of the nature reserve. Water levels were well above the top of the wheels of the Ford which had parked in the main car park at Seaton next to the nature reserve.

Resident Veronica Capaldi has a house which overlooks the main car parks and play park said on Monday January 7: “As a resident, I’ve been here over two decades and yesterday was bad, and other than tide times, not given any warning! There have been times when storms and tides have been really bad, but that was over 19 years ago.”

Local pub Smugglers Inn was selling off carvery roast at £10 per head when the lack of trade scuppered their Sunday service. Landlord Chris Hartley said: “The flooding severely restricted road access to the Smugglers, and also available car parking.

“We suffered a large number of cancellations, and were forced to heavily discount our Sunday carvery to prevent it all going to waste. Today though, the road is open and we expect to trade normally.

“We’ve been here 8 years, and yes, we've seen it worse to be fair, It was just unfortunate for us that it fell on a Sunday which is our busiest day of the week.

“The biggest impact for us was the fact that two of the three car parks in Seaton were completely flooded, which meant even after the road was passable, we were still losing customers who were unable to park.”

Cornwall Councillor for Looe East and Deviock Armand Toms said: “The flooding at Seaton is in an area known as being a flood zone and has flooded as long as I can remember.

“I called Cormac out yesterday who signposted the flood area and again today for clearing of the drains, which will be done as the water level lowers. There has been a request to the Environment Agency to dredge the river and awaiting a reply which may well help.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Environment Agency teams continue to be out on the ground, operating flood defences, taking action to reduce the impact of flooding, issuing flood warnings and supporting those communities affected.” The Environment Agency lifted the flood alert on Tuesday (January 7) at 3.42pm.

They added: “We urge people to remain vigilant over the next few days and advise anyone travelling to be especially careful and urge people to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through flood water as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car.”

A spokesperson for Cormac said: “Flooding has been a long-standing issue in this location. The river Seaton watercourse level in Flood Zone 2 has risen within Seaton Valley. This and poor weather events have redirected the sediment and watercourse across the beach, affecting the highway drainage system, which cannot manage the water on the highway effectively.

“Cormac has attended the site; however, little can be achieved to clear the highway when the water is discharged into the elevated watercourse.

“While reopening the road is a positive step, we recognise that access to local amenities may still be impacted. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”