We Are Colchester updates

Hello and welcome to the first We Are Colchester Update. We want to make sure everyone in Colchester can keep up to date with progress on the We Are Colchester bid.

At the end of 2019, Colchester was chosen by the government as one of 100 towns who could bid for up to £25 million to improve their town over the next 20 years. Nationally the work to design the improvement projects, write the bid and then oversee the completion of the projects, is called the Town Deal. In Colchester we have called it We Are Colchester. At the start of lockdown, the scheme was paused, but we’re really pleased to announce that the Government have restarted the bid process.

This is a fantastic opportunity and we’re working really hard to prepare our bid, which will be submitted at the end of October.

Criteria

The Government have written strict criteria that we must follow if we are to get any money. In Colchester we have taken the criteria and put it into 3 themes; How We Live, How We Connect and How We Grow.

Our Town

We know that Colchester is a fantastic place to live, work, study and visit. The challenge going forward is to keep making it even better. This will be more of a challenge because of Covid-19.

Progress

Since the Town Deal was restarted, the Board overseeing We Are Colchester have met and agreed the submission date of 30th October. Behind the scenes the staff team have been working very hard, writing a plan to ensure all the necessary work is completed on time for our bid.

Your views

It’s really important that we listen to what local people, businesses and organisations think. As a starting point we are asking people to fill in a short questionnaire. We want to know what makes Colchester such a good place to live, work, and visit, now and what can be added, to make it even better in the future. Please fill it in and pass it onto your colleagues, friends and family in the local area. We want to get as many responses as possible. We will use your responses and ideas as we decide how best to spend up to £25 million within the funding criteria.

Respond to the questionnaire

Please make sure that all responses are back to us by Monday 17 August.

I’m proud to be part of We Are Colchester. Together, I'm confident that we will make an even better Colchester.

Simon Blaxill
Chair, We Are Colchester Board