AROUND 900 Wirral homes are still without power following last night’s hurricane-force gales.

Engineers have been working throughout the night to restore power to those cut-off during the storms, with around 1,600 houses in Wirral now reconnected.

Approximately 52,000 homes are without power across the ScottishPower network area, 2,500 of them were in Wirral.

The company said 450 field staff starting the recovery operation at first light this morning.

Up to 100 additional linesmen and engineers from Scotland have been drafted in to assist the recovery.

Some 140,000 homes in Mid and North Wales, North Shropshire and Cheshire have been affected, with engineers restoring power to 98,000.

A company spokesman told the Globe earlier that the biggest issue had been uprooted trees and other debris which had been blown on to overhead power lines, causing damage and bringing down the power lines in some areas.

“Storm force winds continued in to the evening yesterday causing hazardous working conditions and hampering the recovery operation,” added the spokesman.

The company is responding to approximately 800 individual faults on the network.

ScottishPower has cancelled all planned maintenance work.