High winds brought down trees and caused power cuts in north Essex.

A fir tree was blown down in the Baker's Lane area of Colchester, blocking a private road. Across the region branches were blown down on to roads.

A number of homes suffered power cuts on Saturday when gusts of wind exceeding 60mph hit the area.

A spokesman for EDF Energy said: "We activated our emergency plan on Thursday following reports of high winds across the area served by EDF Energy. In preparation for this, we brought in additional staff across engineering, technical and call centre areas.

"In total, over 34,000 customers were affected by power interruption in the area. Fortunately, the vast majority (87%) were restored within 3 hours.

"By 5pm on Saturday we had four major faults in Essex affecting about 110 customers. Power was restored to the final customers affected by midnight on Saturday."

She added that customers without power for more than 18 hours would receive a goodwill payment of £50, and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

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Published Monday, January 10, 2005

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