A 12-feet hole in a sea wall has created a serious flooding problem.

Cars have attempted to drive through deep water after a hole appeared in the sea wall at Fingringhoe Wick.

Water is making its way across the fields and is flooding roads, including Furneaux Lane.

Andrew St Joseph, who is a farmer and district councillor, took some photos of cars trying to navigate the road from Rowhedge to Fingringhoe earlier this week and branded the road Essex’s Tidal Causeway.

He said: “The problem is if something is not done about it, it’s going to get worse and worse. It’s an increasing public risk.

“What is causing it is a breach in the sea wall. There is a 12ft hole and the water is going onto the fields.

“So much water comes down that it floods the road, it’s all salt water which is damaging people’s cars.”

He added: “All these people are inconvenienced and it’s the danger of cars not used to it and not knowing what to do.

“There were cars backing up and turning around.

“It’s an accident waiting to happen, it’s going to have to be resolved.”

In October 2015, the Environment Agency breached the sea wall at Fingringhoe Wick, allowing the tide to flood the site and create new intertidal habitat.

It wanted the habitat to be a mix of saltmarsh, mudflats, saline lagoon and reedbeds which will accommodate rare birds including black-tailed godwit, lapwing, bittern and marsh harrier as well as water voles.

Around 90 per cent of the coastal marshes in the UK have been lost over the past 400 years and the remaining are disappearing due to sea level rise.

The creation of new inter-tidal habitats at places like Fingringhoe are compensating for similar habitat lost elsewhere.

It is understood the sea wall is owned by the Ministry of Defence.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “We are keen to see a timely resolution to this problem and are happy to attend a site meeting with the Ministry of Defence and Essex Highways.”