It’s been quite a week of weather!

Storm Eunice came to town last Friday (February 18), leaving a trail of flattened fences, damaged sheds, bent trampolines and broken greenhouses around the town. Brightlingsea Regent had to cancel a match on Saturday because the grounds fences were damaged, and there was minor damage to the Lido Café frontage.

Trees in All Saints’s churchyard were blown down, with one landing on the Portaloo, and another on Hurst Green was lost. Some areas of the town – including some businesses on the Morses Lane estate suffered power cuts lasting several hours.

After Eunice came Franklin, which caused further minor damage, and on Monday the town narrowly escaped a repeat of the 2019 floods when a surge tide came within inches of overtopping the promenade. The surge was around 1.2m above the predicted high tide, but fortunately this was a relatively ‘low’ high tide and most of the water that filled the area behind the beach huts came as a result of waves overtopping the sea wall.

The sea came within inches of Brightlingsea Sailing Club’s doors, while the Colne Yacht Club had flood boards in place, which prevented water entering the main clubhouse –though its oar store bar was left waterlogged. You can see videos of the surge tide and the rough waters in the creek during the storm in our Video Vault.