AS the Beast from the East reaches its tail end, commuters and residents are suffering the aftermath.

Here are a few updates, with information on what to do next week. 

Waste collection

Rubbish collections have been suspended on safety grounds. A report on Colchester Council’s website said: “In this exceptional winter weather situation we will prioritise catching up on black bins/bags and food waste, over recycling. This is because black bins/bags often contain sanitary products, such as disposable nappies.”

Garden waste collections have been suspended need week to collect black bags.

  •  If next week is your scheduled blue week there are no changes to your collection. Food waste, black bags, cans and glass will be collected. Garden waste, plastic and paper will be collected on Mark 12.
  •  If next week is your scheduled green week, put your black bags out alongside food waste, paper, and plastics. Do not put garden waste out. Tins and glass will be collected on March 12.

Garden waste will be collected from March 19.

Tendring Council and its contractors Veolia decided to suspend waste collections for a third day running on Friday. The council has drawn up a collection plan for this week, which can be seen on the council’s website. All other council services are running as normal.

Health services 

The North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group have been working to ensure health services remain open.

Thankfully, no urgent visits were cancelled and GP services continued, despite staff shortages.

Plans were in place to bring hospital staff into work who were struggling to travel and arrangements made for some staff to stay over.

Sam Hepplewhite, chief officer for North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Our local health system remains under pressure but we are seeing our system partners provide an outstanding response. I would like to thank all of them for their hard work, dedication and efforts.”

One or two routine operations have been cancelled today at Colchester General Hospital due to staff or patient unavailability, but all urgent operations went ahead.

A hospital spokesman said: “We are managing in the Emergency Department and are keeping things running as normal wherever possible.

“Our staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty. We had a fleet of staff in 4x4s bringing their colleagues into the hospital and getting them home.

“The safety of our patients is paramount and we ask anyone with an appointment to think about their safety before attempting to come in.”

With more severe weather predicted this weekend, local charities have extended day and night time help for single homeless people.

Anyone homeless over this weekend can contact Colchester Night Shelter on 01206 549885 or via enquiries@colchesternightshelter.org.uk

St Peter’s Guest House also remains open. Register by calling Beacon House on 01206 761960

Outreach services will remain in place, to monitor and refer as appropriate.

Transport services 

Train services are advising passengers to only travel if necessary. Abellio Greater Anglia is running a Saturday service today as the weather has caused faults.

The Saturday service is running on the following lines: 

  • Norwich, Ipswich, Clacton-On-Sea, Colchester, Chelmsford and all stations in between to London
  • Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street
  • Southminster to Wickford
  • Braintree to Witham
  • Marks Tey to Sudbury
  • Colchester to Clacton and Walton-on-the-Naze
  • Harwich to Manningtree;
  • Ipswich to Felixstowe
  • Ipswich to Cambridge
  • Ipswich to Peterborough
  • Norwich to Cambridge

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “We have been trying to run the best possible service we can in these extremely testing circumstances. We’ve had extra people at stations helping to clear away snow and ice.”

Elsewhere in Essex 

POLICE have taken to social media to confirm that a main road is not closing this afternoon, despite numerous reports on Facebook.

Essex Police said in a Facebook post that the A120 from Horsley Cross to Harwich will not be closing at 2pm.

They advised users to follow their page for official updates to avoid confusion on road closures.

Ice and snow made travelling by road in Tendring very difficult and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service advised people to avoid driving if possible.

Bus operator First Essex has cancelled a number of routes, including from Clacton to Mistley, Harwich and Walton.

It also cancelled services via the Holland Marshes due to abandoned vehicles with snow up to their windscreens due to snow drift.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said there were also snow drifts in parts of St Osyth and that it worked with police to help stranded motorists.

It said: “We saw drifts of up to 6ft high which trapped many motorists. Many thanks to the farmers and staff from Seawick Holiday Park who have tirelessly helped us too.”

Business 

AN award-winning garden centre will lose out on more than £50,000 takings because of the snow blasts last week.

Perrywood Garden Centre, in Tiptree, shut on the second day of bad weather when many roads across the region became impassable.

From Monday to Wednesday the store were £37,000 down, compared to the same three days the week before.

Taking into account last Thursday and Friday, manager of the family-run business Simon Bourne, says this will increase to in excess of £50,000.

He said: "We would normally take £15,000 per day in that week. On Wednesday we didn't take a single penny but every day this week has been very short.

"There were barely any customers in, but I doubt we would have made more than a few hundred pounds anyway.

"We have the misfortune of being on a hill which causes problems for our car park if there is lots of snow.

"The roads were pretty bad that morning, lorries were struggling to get uphill and quite a lot of our staff live a few miles away so it was definitely the right decision to close."

A kind builder got the garden centre up and running again by clearing the car park ready for the next day.

But because of how the gardening season works, the best is yet to come.

Mother's Day usually kicks off the demand for flowers and bank holidays during Easter and May, accompanied by the warmer weather, will entice people into their gardens and into nurseries.

Therefore this short-term loss is not the "be all and end all".

He said: "If you go back historically, it's rare you get a perfect season, there will always be ups and down.

"Our seasonality is more than other retail shops because weather is the most important factor.

"If you have a really good March that may be cancelled out by a bad April, but March to May are our three most important months."

Trading at garden centres also fluctuate according to trends which is working in favour of the industry right now.

He added: "There's a large trend towards having gardening items in your home so people are becoming interested in plants who have never owned one before.

"Lots more youngsters, who five years ago would never step foot into a garden centre, are now shopping with us so we're trying to follow these trends and in some cases influence them."