FLOODING caused chaos across Swindon after torrential rain caught people out yesterday lunchtime.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue and Wiltshire Police received many calls to attend problems caused by flooding, with firms closing early, drivers stranded and houses under several inches of water.

At BSS House, in Cheney Manor Industrial Estate, more than 15 businesses were forced to suspend trading as they dealt with six inches of water across the entire retail unit.

Paul Bansal, owner of Bansal Motors, a garage at BSS House, said: “The water came up through the drains in the floor, not the roof.

“The drains around this whole unit are either blocked or purely unable to deal with so much water in one go. We’ve been closed from 11.30am until 1.30pm and we are looking at another two or three hours until everything is cleared up.”

As traders joined forces to sweep water from the Cheney Manor unit, staff at Michael’s Tailoring, a medal mounting firm in BSS House, were facing a nervous wait to turn the power back on after water came through light fittings and plug sockets at their shop.

Fire crews from Westlea attended a call at BSS House, but were limited in what they could do, with the drains they normally pump water into overflowing with rain water.

They turned the power off at the retail block to avoid any fire risk and left.

The fire service also attended house calls in Upper Stratton at Hyde Road and Archer Close, as well as Cheney Manor Road and Benwell Close in Westlea, where water was coming into homes from back gardens.

Vehicles at Bruce Street Bridges were faced with a one foot deep lake at the height of the rain, with some drivers electing to jump out and push their cars out of the water, with one or two steaming motors providing nervous moments.

John Lewis at Home, in Mannington Retail Park, was forced to close at 12.30pm for the rest of the day as water poured into the first floor from pipes in the roof.

David Feather, a customer in the store, said: “While shopping on the top floor the noise of the heavy rain on the roof was very loud.Water started to fall from pipes and at first it looked like an internal water leak. A torrent of water started to fall on furniture in the store.

“We were asked to move downstairs and about 50 customers collected by the front door. Staff kindly ferried customers to their cars with umbrellas.”

Wiltshire Police received many calls to flooding across the town, including Whitworth Road, the junction of Calne Road and Preston Lane in Royal Wootton Bassett and the B4019 in Highworth.

A car also got stuck in the water at the junction of Inglesham Road and Stockton Road in Penhill, but officers handed the incident over to the Highways department at the council.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “We would urge drivers to take extra care in these adverse weather conditions, allow plenty of time for your journey and remember that stopping distances change in wet weather.”

Meanwhile, services in the town are still suffering from last week’s storms.

Ladybird Children’s Centre in West Swindon has been closed after damage to its electrical systems caused by a lightning strike.

Staff were plunged into darkness after a lightning bolt hit the premises at around 5pm last Monday.

At first, workers thought a fuse was behind the sudden blackout but it soon transpired it was due to the storms in Swindon early last week.

The building’s IT system was also affected and the centre’s fire alarms and phones no longer worked.

“When the lightning started the lights went out,” said the centre’s coordinator, who wished not to be named. “We reset the fuses. The next day we realised the fire alarm wasn’t working so we had to close because of safety.”

The centre hopes to be open by next week.

Sue Dutton, of Bradford Guesthouse in Devizes Road, Old Town, has only just managed to return to normal.

She said: “I’ve only just got my internet working since the electrical current struck the house sending such a powerful surge down the phoneline that my phones, computer and credit card terminal were severely damaged resulting in much of the equipment having to be replaced.

“I waited two days for a BT engineer but could wait no longer because I run a guesthouse so got it fixed by a local man at Miracle Computers who definitely worked a miracle for me.”