A NEW £3million business centre could soon open in Colchester to meet growing demand for premises from new companies.

Colchester Business Enterprise Agency says its North Colchester Business Centre, in The Crescent, is full to bursting point, accommodating 68 staff, employed by 22 businesses.

Its other premises, the Central Colchester Business Centre, in George Williams Way, is not far behind and is also expected to be full soon.

As a result, the agency is now in talks about setting up a third business centre in south Colchester or, possibly, Tiptree in the next three years.

Executive director Bob Baggalley said: “Halfway through the first year of operation, we were full. We have been full ever since, so now we need another centre.

“South Colchester seems to be the best area, maybe Tiptree.”

The idea of the centres is to provide new businesses with office space on flexible contracts, with free or heavily-subsidised advice and training readily available.

The biggest obstacle in the way of setting up a third centre is likely to be finding the money, since the kind of public funding which helped set up other centres is unlikely to be so freely available.

The North Colchester Business Centre cost £2.4million to set up, with the central Government and the East of England Development Agency providing £1million and Colchester Council chipping in £400,000.

Mr Baggalley added: “I think we may be in the second part of the recession.

“I think some time in the next two to three years we will see a gradual improvement.

“As the economy starts to grow, demand will grow, so I would suggest a third business centre in a three-year time frame would be ideal.”