Part of Essex city I found oddly deserted (7)
I believe the answer is:
section
'part of essex city i found oddly deserted' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'part of essex city i found oddly' is the wordplay.
'part of essex city' becomes 'sect' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'oddly' means one should take alternating letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
The alternating letters of 'found' are 'on'.
'sect'+'i'+'on'='SECTION'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for section that I've seen before include "Element" , "Divide; part" , "Division, portion" , "branch" , "Cut" .)