Storms Eunice and Franklin caused havoc across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole over the past few days and recovery teams are working hard to restore order.

Seafront teams are working to clear the promenade of thousands of tonnes of sand with limited access to the public, apart from emergency services.

Parks teams, who cleared 140 fallen trees on Friday, are continuing to respond to dozens more reports about fallen, split and leaning trees, and fallen and hanging branches.

Bin collection teams are working hard to address disruption to refuse and recycling collections on Friday, with waste services collecting extra bags this coming weekend to reduce the backlog.

Chris Saunders, from Incident Command and director of Destination and Culture at BCP Council, said: “Our teams are still working through a number of storm-related incidents so we would ask for patience as we deal with the backlog.

In one incident, the roof of Hillview Primary School in Ensbury Park came off and landed where children enter the school. Fortunately, no children were in attendance, and no one was injured. The school will reopen after the half-term break.

Andrew Brown, operations manager, Seafront Operations, said there was fortunately little material damage to seafront buildings and assets along the bay from Sandbanks to Southbourne and further.

Access to the beach was closed in some areas, except for emergency access, due to the sand build up and one car park between the piers, Undercliff Drive, was also closed.

Andrew Brown said: “Our buildings were relatively unscathed, fortunately. However, we now have thousands of tonnes of sand blown up onto the promenade, which is the main problem we are dealing with now.

“Access to the promenade is limited because of the sand, apart for emergency access.

“We have got six full time staff and an additional 15 casual staff working almost overnight to clear the sand.

“The tractors are out from 4am in the morning onwards with other teams moving in with wheelbarrows and shovels to remove any debris and from first light, about 6.30am, to reduce the volume.

“I’d like to say a huge thanks to the team for stepping up over the weekend. Thanks also to the public who listened to our safety advice and didn’t travel to the coast.”

Mike Parkinson, Parks and Grounds maintenance manager, said his team dealt with 140 reports of fallen trees on Friday.

All bin collections suspended on Friday will be collected Saturday and Sunday 26 and 27 February.

Residents are asked to put their bins out by 6am on Saturday and two bags of additional side waste will be taken where necessary. Alternatively, residents can take additional waste to one of the recycling centres.

For other waste collection bins affected by suspension of services due to the storm, the council is asking households to manage their food, green and recyclable waste until their next scheduled collection.