THE city of Colchester needs investment from central Government to keep pace with its skyrocketing population, a councillor has said.

Reacting to the latest census data, which shows Colchester’s population has expanded by 11 per cent since 2011, Colchester Council’s deputy leader Adam Fox said: “The East of England was the fastest growing area in all of the country, so it mirrors what’s going on in other parts of the region.

“Colchester is one of the biggest in the county in terms of growth, so we’re clearly seeing people want to live in Colchester and it shows Colchester is a great place to settle.

“Getting city status chimes with that too.

“It shows this is a brilliant place to bring up a family and there is a lot going on with places like the university, which attracts a lot of people to come here and study.”

Mr Fox said Colchester provides residents with a “work-life balance”, due to its good connections to London and wider amenities.

How has the age of people in Colchester changed?

“We have easy access into London and easy access to the coast – we’ve got great places like Mersea Island, Wivenhoe and Rowhedge on the river,” he said.

“One of the caveats to this is that as we clearly are one of the areas in the country which is growing rapidly, what we need from the Government is funding to ensure we have the facilities to keep up with that growth, to ensure Colchester continues to be a good place to live and work." 

He added: “We don’t want to be constantly catching up on infrastructure.

“We will be putting in the bids, doing our best to make sure we get the support from the county council, from our members of Parliament, making sure the Government sees Colchester as one of those areas which needs to keep up with population growth.”