Colchester Labour calls for 'Team Ten' revival against ASB

Colchester Labour councillors have called to revive “Team Ten” to tackle antisocial behaviour and crime in the city centre. 

The initiative in 2018 saw Colchester Council and Essex Police team up to create a Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) which saw the introduction of Team 10 - a dedicated group of officers solely focused on issues in the town centre.

Lee Scordis presented a motion at a full council meeting last week to re-implement the strategy in order to clamp down on issues in Colchester. 

He said: “The past year has shown we still have real issues of antisocial behaviour in Colchester ranging from issues in Castle Park, street drinkers, openly drinking outside Marks and Spencer during the day, drug dealing still not being dealt with, shoplifting incidents not being attended by the police and much more. 

“We need to ask ourselves if in the last year things have gone any better.” 

Motion - Councillor Scordis put forward a motion to revive Team Ten to tackle ASB (Image: Public)

Mr Scordis said the council was “let down by the leadership of Essex Police”, also referring to the “atrocious record” of two out of more than 400 bike crimes being solved. 

He made clear that his criticism was directed at the leaders of Essex Police, not officers. 

The motion also called for the Public Space Protection Order to be enforced by the police in the city centre. 

Castle ward councillor Mark Goacher welcomed the motion, as his ward is known as one of the hotspots within the city. 

He called for proper vehicles for wardens, to enable them to get around the city quicker, and for the council to find a strategy for changing people’s behaviour. 

His fellow party councillor Kemal Cefoglu criticised the motion for not tackling the root causes of ASB and crime, highlighting grim statistics from Essex Police, which show Colchester’s hate crime rate in comparison to Chelmsford. 

Conservative councillor Paul Dundas criticised Labour’s lack of evidence backing the motion. 

He said: “I actually do have sympathy with this motion as antisocial behaviour is something which concerns us all. 

Councillor Paul Dundass

“However, I do think the only way to make progress on it is to work collaboratively with our partners, and I’m not sure criticising those who are trying to help us and indeed, criticising the council is necessarily the best way to go about it.” 

Councillors agreed there was a need for a new strategy. 

The motion was carried by 24 councillors voting in favour, one voting against it and 19 abstaining to vote.