A stink hangs over Bakery Lane in Pembroke where business owner David Swift is fuming over an unaddressed issue going back years.

Mr Swift, who owns Pembroke Paint Company, said the constant overflow of tainted water affects customers as well as passing members of the public.

“I’ve been raising this problem with the Health Department again and again for years, and it still keeps on happening,” Mr Swift said.

“If it was happening on Front Street with all the tourists, it would be shut down immediately.”

The blame has been laid on persistent high tides, which have raised the water table and brought flooding to low lying parts of the island.

But that explanation does not wash for Mr Swift, who said: “It’s not coming from beneath the ground.

“It’s coming out from the drain in volume — there’s pressure behind it. People have to step through it; you ride your bike through it and get splashed.”

While the area is quiet for the long weekend, the overflow continues to seep into the road.

Mr Swift said he hoped to raise the issue once more with health officials after the Remembrance Day holiday.