DRIVING winds and rains have caused havoc around Dorset and the New Forest.

A number of homes and businesses in Poole were without power after high winds brought a tree down onto electricity lines.

Residents in the Bloxworth Road area of Poole reported hearing a number of explosions around 11am.

Police and Dorset Fire and Rescue Service attended the scene, close the junction of Bloxworth Road and Scott Road.

They found a tree had fallen onto power lines, leaving a number of homes without electricity Some businesses at Poole’s Tower Park complex also reported losing power.

Southern Electric Power Distribution spokesman Samantha O’Connor, said: “We would like to apologise to the residents of Bloxworth Road in Poole for the interruption to their supplies.

“This is due to a tree that has landed on our overhead line near Bloxworth Road.

“Our engineers are carrying out the repairs and hope to restore supplies as soon as possible.”

The footpath at the junction of Scott Road and Bloxworth Road has been blocked off.

Burger King was one of the Tower Park businesses to lose power for around an hour after the incident.

However, they were back in business by lunchtime.

A Fiat Punto and a Land Rover were in collision on the A31 near Corfe Mullen after a tree fell onto the Land Rover during the storms.

The A350 was closed for ten miles both ways between Shaftesbury and Durweston after a tree fell onto power cables.

Rossmore Library has been closed until further notice due to high winds damaging the roof of the building.

South West Trains reported a fallen tree on the line at Brockenhurst at around 11.20am.

Operations staff removed it and the line reopened at around 1.45pm.

Dorset Police said the weather around the county was “fairly severe” overnight and its control room received a number of reports of fallen trees blocking roads.

One driver had a lucky escape when a tree came crashing down onto his Silver Honda CRV as he travelled along the B3081 past Sixpenny Handley at 6.52am.

The vehicle, registered to a Fordingbridge man, was recovered and the road cleared at 8am.

A Dorset Police spokesman said the vehicle sustained a “severe amount of damage” in the incident but the driver escaped uninjured.

The first weather-related call was made to police at 2.34am about a tree down outside the Red Lion Hotel at Winfrith Newburgh, just past Dorset Police HQ. The tree was pruned back by police officers to allow vehicles to pass.

At 4.50am a tree had blocked both lanes of the A30 at Henstridge. Officers from the local authority attended and dealt with the tree.

An hour later police were called to a tree down in Piddle Lane in Cerne Abbas.

At 6.14am the road between Verwood and Three Legged Cross was completely blocked by a large tree that had come crashing down. The road was cleared an hour later.

Other trees were reported down at 7.11am at Duntish near Dorchester, 7.16am at Triscombe in Beaminster, 7.21am at East Stoke and 7.39am on Longbury Hill Lane in Gillingham.

Dorset Fire reported trees down on Wimborne Road in Tarrant Rawston and Kingsmill Road in Stalbridge.

A spokesman said a wall had also collapsed in North Road in Upper Parkstone.

Millhams Tip has been closed due to high winds.

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