You Suck At PR Campaigns, Colchester Safety Partnership!

An area of Colchester does not deserve its poor reputation, claim organisers of a community safety initiative.

Great, OK, so what are you doing to combat this?

Colchester Safety Partnership launched its eighth day of action in the town’s St Anne’s area yesterday. Colchester Council and Essex Police joined forces with other agencies for a host of events, including a blitz on problem parking and speeding motorists.

Ummmm. OK, but if you have a ‘blitz’ on something, aren’t you actually admitting that yes, it is indeed a problem?

Unless of course you don’t find any problems in your blitz, and people claim that nothing’s wrong?

Tim Young, Colchester councillor responsible for community safety, said: “This time we spoke to residents before we held the action day to find out what the problems are.

“We found parking, dog fouling, litter and street cleaning, speeding, antisocial behaviour and graffiti were the biggest problems.”

Oh. Scrub that theory then!

“St Anne’s has a number of diverse areas, such as the St Anne’s estate, which I think it’s fair to say is one of the most deprived areas in Colchester.”

My code-speak detector is buzzing…

“The reputation it has had over the past 20 years is entirely wrong. As a community safety manager I would have no problem living here.”

I note the tense. So, clearly, you aren’t living there?

Why not?