STRONG winds battered the region over the weekend but disruption was kept to a minimum with only pockets of power cuts across Suffolk.Andy Bodenham, weather forecaster for the Met Office, said that gales swept across East Anglia with gusts of up to 50mph on Saturday night .

STRONG winds battered the region over the weekend but disruption was kept to a minimum with only pockets of power cuts across Suffolk.

Andy Bodenham, weather forecaster for the Met Office, said that gales swept across East Anglia with gusts of up to 50mph on Saturday night .

The strong north-westerly winds predicted for the county sparked a weather warning over the weekend, running from 2.30pm on Friday , and a weather watch was effective from 9pm on Saturday to 12pm on Sunday .

The Environment Agency also issued flood alerts yesterday with the whole of the coast running from Hopton to Shingle Street and from Shingle Street to Clacton under a "flood watch" due to the extra high tide.

A spokesman for EDF Energy said there had been no "particular problems" in the storms.

He said yesterday afternoon: "The biggest fault at the moment is in Lakenheath where there are 90 customers off. It is affecting Undley Road where there are trees banging against the cables and people have not had time to cut them back.

"Everywhere else there are less than 15 properties affected. Some of these are branches or trees on the lines. It has been a busy day but there has been no need to activate our emergency plans."

The other areas affected by power cuts were Hasketon, where there were two houses without power, Bradfield St George, where there were seven properties affected, Beck Row, near Mildenhall, where 11 houses experienced a power cut, and Bentley, where a "small number" of people were without electricity.

In Essex, residents of Manningtree were affected by a power cut which left 120 homes without power, although this was not weather related.

A Suffolk police spokesman said that there had been "nothing major" in the county with about a dozen trees needing to be cleared from the roads.

Mr Bodenham forecasted that this week would be "dry, fine and settled" and there would even be a "bit of sunshine".

Temperatures in Ipswich were expected to drop to -4C tonight and -1C in Lowestoft but then look set to rise again later in the week.