In today's Gazette: Former department store Keddies is costing Colchester taxpayers £80,000 a year in business rates - even though it is empty.

Colchester Council bought the store in Queen's Street seven years ago but plans to use it for a hotel have stalled. However, it is still having to pay business rates while it finds a buyer.

* A motorcyclist was taken to hospital after he crashed on Balkerne Hill, Colchester.

The man was taken to hospital with serious and potentially life-threatening injuries.

* Developers have been given permission to build a supermarket in Colchester.

The land in Gosbecks Road is jointly owned by the Colchester Wine Company and Colchester Borough Homes.

* A barman was punched in the face after asking a customer to stop swearing.

Mark Biglin, 50, needed four stitches to his lip after he was attacked from behind at the Brittania pub in Meyrick Crescent, Colchester.

* Fast food chain KFC has been fined £12,000 after one of its workers was given an electric shock by a faulty air conditioning unit in Colchester High Street.

For more on these and other great stories, see today's Gazette. There is always more in the paper than there is online.