Colchester 'leading the way' in the battle against spiking

Spiking is already illegal, but the government has committed to naming it as a specific criminal offence.

Organisations in Colchester have been working together to tackle spiking in the city centre after a police probe back in 2021. 

Open Road, a Colchester-based charity that supports individuals and families with addiction issues, has said Colchester has been “leading the way” in protecting the public “from this nasty and insidious practice”.

The charity – who have also been working with Our Colchester Business Improvement District (BID) and Essex Police – have put in measures such as the Ask Angela project which is a code word system that aims to trains staff and raise awareness with the public.

Calm- Stacey Banner a manager at Open Road said people should not fear going out due to media coverage of spiking (Image: Submitted) Stacey Banner, 44, is the Open Road’s welfare and volunteer managers, said: “We have had significant measures in place in terms of alcohol, we’ve got spiking caps for bottle necks.

“Colchester has been fortunate to have the BID safer streets funding, and anti-spiking was part of that."

The government’s new national measure is part of their manifesto promise to halve violence against women and girls - with Stacey saying in Colchester “most staff are trained already” ahead of the national spring roll-out.

Informed - Stacey Banner said people may not be informed about spiking symptoms which are clearly labelled in the Halloween-themed booklet (Image: Submitted)

Cap - An anti-spiking cap for drinks (Image: Submitted) When asked about any packs to support victims, Stacey said that some venues have testing strips.

Stacey also said that as well as drugs, another part of the problem was people being given "doubles instead of singles" as that makes people vulnerable.

Trained - Stacey said most staff in Colchester have already been trained (Image: Submitted) She said: “In my day you went out and had a designated driver – that was it - but as soon as you start drinking alcohol you are vulnerable.

“We all know need we need to take responsibility for ourselves, I would only buy my own drink and there’s very few people I would accept drinks from – it is easily done.”

"But with the fear of going out, it’s always been there I just think its more spoken out about - we should talk about it and not panic about it".