A school was still closed today engineers struggled to restore power after the gales at the weekend.

Students at Ramsden Hall School, in Ramsden Heath, Billericay, have not been able to use the school's cold and murky classrooms since the power failed on Sunday.

It is a secondary school for children with special needs. Most of them are boarders.

Mike Barnet, education spokesman for Essex County Council, said: "The children are normally collected on Monday and returned home on Friday, but if there is no power the school cannot ensure the safety of the children. This obviously causes problems for the families."

The school is one of only four left in the whole of Essex that is still suffering fallout from the powerful gales that caused chaos throughout the county on Sunday.

Published Tuesday October 29, 2002

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