Column: Former MP and current Colchester High Steward Sir Bob Russell takes a stroll along the town’s most cosmopolitan street - North Station Road.

NORTH Station Road is the most cosmopolitan street in Colchester, with an ethnic mix of independent stores and hot food takeaways more akin to what can be found in London’s Old Kent Road.

I have lived with the sound of trains at North Station for most of my life, growing up in Mile End Road and for the past 50 years near the Fire Station.

This is an account of my recent walk along North Station Road, from the Albert Roundabout to the bridge over the River Colne at Middleborough.

There are 46 businesses, including a dozen places you can eat or buy takeaways which is more than any other street in Colchester.

There are six general stores, five of them with a strong overseas identity. The most recent is one selling food items from Romania.

Hot food takeaways include three selling pizzas and two fish and chip shops.

Adding to the variety of ethnic food choices, there are two Chinese takeaways and two Indian restaurants, plus a Kurdish restaurant and a Balti takeaway.

The business premises range from a large bank (HSBC) to a gun shop and from a physiotherapy to a branch of Colchester Food Bank.

There are six hairdressers and a beauty salon.

There are three hotels, a public house and a large wine retailer.

Next door to each other are two garages dealing with vehicle repairs and servicing.

The variety of businesses is diverse with a washing machine shop, elsewhere a launderette and a large shop selling tools and machinery.

There is also a betting shop and a property letting agency.

Among all this commercial activity there are 14 houses and four buildings which are flats, one of them a former office block in front of North Primary School which has just been converted into 15 flats.

There is also a church – Seventh Day Adventist, whose services are on a Saturday.

This is hidden behind the bank and Raj Palace Indian restaurant.

The former Railway Mission church (opened in 1896) is now used by the NHS Essex Partnership Trust.

Colchester’s most cosmopolitan street, however, faces a challenging future – if proposals by Essex County Council and Colchester Borough Council are implemented.

On-street 30-minute parking for customers could be removed to make way for a cycle route from North Station to the Town Centre.

Also suggested is that North Station Road would be made entry only from Middleborough to the Albert Roundabout, with “no entry” (other than for buses, taxis, motorcyclists and cyclists) into North Station Road from the Albert Roundabout towards town.

At a stroke, many customers who currently support businesses in North Station Road would be deterred because of restricted access and nowhere to park.

The residential population of this part of Colchester is not sufficient to support all these convenience stores and hot food takeaways, let alone the various specialist businesses.

North Station Road has evolved and prospered over the years, with many changes, as I have witnessed at first hand.

It has largely survived Covid-19, but an uncertain future now awaits businesses as councils deliberate on measures which could make survival difficult for many.

by Sir Bob Russell Colchester High Steward