Heavy armoured vehicles will be rolling on to the streets of Colchester.

And in a second shock move, the longest-serving town regiment is also moving out of town.

A highly-placed garrison source confirmed today that 19 Regiment Royal Artillery is leaving Colchester before 2002.

The regiment - known as the Highland Gunners - is converting from a light gun regiment to a heavy gun outfit and will use the new AS90 vehicles which are tank-like in appearance.

Before they move to their new base at Larkhill in Wiltshire, the gunners will take delivery of their new equipment.

It will be kept at the regiment's base, Kirkee Barracks, and although it will be mainly used on garrison roads, the guns will need to be moved on the town's public streets. Previously, 19 Regiment's largest vehicles were Land Rovers and lorries.

Soldiers will be sent to Bovington in Dorset and Tidworth in Wiltshire, to train how to use the AS90, described as the "most advanced self-propelled artillery system in the world".

An Army spokesman confirmed the news, though he said the timescale for the regiment's move was not yet confirmed as it was dependent on a new base being built in Larkhill.

19 Regiment Royal Artillery has been closely associated with the town throughout its 50-year history.

It is attached to the 24 Airmobile Brigade and in April last year was granted the highest civic honour a local authority can convey when it was granted the honorary freedom of the borough of Colchester.

Next month, it is also being granted the freedom of Inverness.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.