Village halls are on standby as emergency respite centres as residents face spending the rest of Christmas Eve without power.

Emergency respite centres in Elmstead Market and Wrabness are on standby to serve the people whose homes are still without power in the Tendring area.

Tendring District Council’s interim leader, Paul Honeywood, has said the area got off quite lightly considering winds reached 75mph according to local residents.

About 50 homes in Harwich were left without power for a while, but they soon had it restored or were provided with a generator. It was a similar situation in Elmstead Market, which affected 30 homes and around 90 people.

UK Power Networks has an arrangement in place with British Red Cross for power outages in the area, and they are currently making their arrangements with them.

Tendring District Council has been in contact with Elmstead Parish Council and their village hall is available as a respite centre if required.

There was a further issue in the Wrabness area where around 12 homes – 36 people – were left without power. Wrabness Parish Council checked their village hall facilities to see if they could be used if they are needed.

Affected areas will be updated by UK Power Networks and informed if the respite centres will be opened.

Trees came down and blocked roads across the district, although were soon cleared up by a council team.

A large amount of sand was blown over the wall on the promenade around Martello Bay, but this was also cleared from the carriageway.

Mr Honeywood said: “We had reports of 14 trees down today and the roads were unblocked as quickly as possible and all dealt with.

“Staff from our public experience department will go round again on Friday to clear away any debris that is still left at the roadside at that time.”

Cllr Honeywood added that teams will also be on standby to deal with any further issues caused by the weather in the next few days.