Census figures show population increase of 18,000

6:31pm Tuesday 11th December 2012 in News

THE increase in Colchester’s population shows growth in the borough is outstripping the rest of the country, according to an economics expert.

Professor Eric Smith, deputy head of Economics at the University of Essex, also warned rapid growth could put a strain on public services such as schools and hospitals.

Prof Smith, who also heads up think tank Insight East, said: “The east, and most especially Colchester, is far outstripping the rest of the country in terms of growth.

“It wouldn’t take a university professor to see there has been a lot of development in Colchester in terms of housing.”

Colchester is the second largest borough in the county with 173,074 residents, compared to 155,796 people living in the town in 2001.

“We must be guarded, though, as growth is never without its difficulties and it will indeed put a strain on public services such as schools and doctors.”

FOR AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE CENSUS FIGURES, READ WEDNESDAY'S GAZETTE

 

Comments(16)

GreensteadResident says...
6:48pm Tue 11 Dec 12

House prices and rents have been pushed up. Wages have been pushed down. Doctors surgeries are so full it's difficult to get an appointment. I don't much in the line of benefits from this increase in numbers. I'm sure that other people will have a different opinion and pov.

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Say It As It Is OK? says...
7:30pm Tue 11 Dec 12

So it takes a University Professor to warn us of the rapid growth in the town and how it could put a strain on public services? Our Schools, particularly the infant intake, is already strained to the hilt with children as young as 4 who cannot get a place at their local School and its been like that for a number of years already.

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Colonel Kurtz says...
8:42pm Tue 11 Dec 12

Stop immigration. Call me a racist I don't care. It can't continue like this.

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angryman!!! says...
8:50pm Tue 11 Dec 12

The problem is immigrants come to this country as there's work as there's a large part of society that is happy not to work.
If you could get the fit and able but plain lazy to work then there would be no reason for immigrants to come to this country.

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Colonel Kurtz says...
8:53pm Tue 11 Dec 12

There's no work now

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greenbroker says...
9:08pm Tue 11 Dec 12

More resident means more Council Tax? However, the CBC has not kept up with demand for services, roads.....

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super waluigi says...
9:12pm Tue 11 Dec 12

Colonel Kurtz wrote:
Stop immigration. Call me a racist I don't care. It can't continue like this.
But what you have just said is racist.

Without the full statistics, we don't know if immigration has gone up quicker or slower in Colchester borough than any other borough, there for making your comment racist and laughable. Lots of factors make up this statistic. Yes immigration will contribute to a rise, but so will less people dying of smoking, a younger community (ie university students), quicker breeders, more work in the area, more space to develope new houses..... the list goes on. Thicko

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jut1972 says...
9:24pm Tue 11 Dec 12

Colchester was identified already as the fastest growing borough in the country with a projected growth of 19%. These stats show an 11% growth so its going to get worse.

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angryman!!! says...
11:24pm Tue 11 Dec 12

Well there is obviously work or people wouldn't be travelling the entire length of Europe and more to come and work here! it's just there's a hell of a lot of people in this country that can't be bothered to work, ESP hard manual work which these guys do. I often get long breaks, and have often gone to agencies to get a weeks work here and there and it's very easy, not well paid, and hard work but its out there. But scummers would rather stay in bed watching Jeremy Kyle and take home benefits rather than get up at 5 to do a 12hr shift in a factory.
I say fair play to the Eastern Europeans, hard working good people and when I've worked in factories with them they've been good blokes

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Steve86 says...
1:03am Wed 12 Dec 12

Colonel Kurtz wrote:
Stop immigration. Call me a racist I don't care. It can't continue like this.
Racist. You say that yet your name 'Kurtz' isn't English. Hmm...

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super waluigi says...
8:06am Wed 12 Dec 12

angryman!!! wrote:
Well there is obviously work or people wouldn't be travelling the entire length of Europe and more to come and work here! it's just there's a hell of a lot of people in this country that can't be bothered to work, ESP hard manual work which these guys do. I often get long breaks, and have often gone to agencies to get a weeks work here and there and it's very easy, not well paid, and hard work but its out there. But scummers would rather stay in bed watching Jeremy Kyle and take home benefits rather than get up at 5 to do a 12hr shift in a factory.
I say fair play to the Eastern Europeans, hard working good people and when I've worked in factories with them they've been good blokes
Thing is, immigration brings both hard working foreign people and lazy people. Just like some British are hard working and some are lazy. Saying that immigration is up because there is too many lazy British people unwilling to work is just as bad as the racist because it is a myth. Neither immigration or fans of Jeremy Kyle will be the main factor to this rise. Colchester and its building suburbs are simply a nice place to live. I embrace that.

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Dillinga says...
8:41am Wed 12 Dec 12

Colonel Kurtz wrote:
There's no work now
The thing is there actually is work but what incentive is there to work when you can just pop out a baby and have everything paid for by the state from the roof over your head to the clothes on your back.

The issue is too many people who are out of work consider some jobs to be beneath them, the vast majority of migrant workers come here with the correct attitude of wanting to pay their way and work hard. It's the "British" born and bred that are taking this country down grabbing all they can without ever lifting a finger thinking that because they were born here they are entitled to have their way paid for by the rest of us.

The entire benefits system needs overhauling as currently all it does is encourage the feckless.

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zt00013 says...
9:31am Wed 12 Dec 12

The UK's economic system means there must be a fair degree of unemployment at all times, to keep the workforce flexible, suppress wages and limit rights; increasing the profitability of business. The 'underclass' are just the result of the neo-liberal economic theories from the 1980's onwards. The UK is a very competitive economy mainly down to its flexible workforce, remove that and you will damage UK firms, you can't demand both in this instance, either you accept this current status quo or not, bear in mind levels of long term unemployed remained relatively constant throughout the 2000's. Making life tougher for people on benefits merely purports the race to the bottom and distracts people from the real issues, £1 billion lost in benefit but £12 billion in unclaimed benefits, really shows the character of the British people. All the while we pay dearly for the failure of the banks and the multi-nationals that extract wealth from this country and from its people, owe billions in tax.

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Boris says...
2:45pm Wed 12 Dec 12

zt00013 wrote:
The UK's economic system means there must be a fair degree of unemployment at all times, to keep the workforce flexible, suppress wages and limit rights; increasing the profitability of business. The 'underclass' are just the result of the neo-liberal economic theories from the 1980's onwards. The UK is a very competitive economy mainly down to its flexible workforce, remove that and you will damage UK firms, you can't demand both in this instance, either you accept this current status quo or not, bear in mind levels of long term unemployed remained relatively constant throughout the 2000's. Making life tougher for people on benefits merely purports the race to the bottom and distracts people from the real issues, £1 billion lost in benefit but £12 billion in unclaimed benefits, really shows the character of the British people. All the while we pay dearly for the failure of the banks and the multi-nationals that extract wealth from this country and from its people, owe billions in tax.
Spot on. Well said.

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Boris says...
2:55pm Wed 12 Dec 12

Steve86 wrote:
Colonel Kurtz wrote:
Stop immigration. Call me a racist I don't care. It can't continue like this.
Racist. You say that yet your name 'Kurtz' isn't English. Hmm...
It could be that the Colonel is really English, or at any rate British, but he uses the name of a famous character in a novel by Joseph Conrad, a Pole. Or he may have picked it from the film "Apocalypse Now", starring Marlon Brando and sundry other aliens.
.
But, as the Colonel admits, he is a racist.

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theequaliser1 says...
10:24pm Sat 15 Dec 12

a number of you on here have made some quite scattered and open contributed statements: first on the list is benefits there will always be members of our society that are un employable no one wants them it is a fact of life. those people no matter who or what they are have to be supported in a millenial society. not everyone is sitting in bed watching jez kyle (probably bid up tv, or orange county). there has to be immigration the work is here and these people want to do it so leave that chesnut out please the works there so who cares. bread baked with bitter pill feeds only half mans hunger so you would not want some uninterested muppet making up your 99p trifles from TesBury's spitting in it at the same time:
18,000 by the way is about right and the local colcestrian identity will dissipate even further.
as for house prices they are going down not up. it is just that some of you want it all zero interests rates for your mortgages on the back of savers who are getting naff all for their hard earned savings and cheap houses as well. flats for 50 grand are not expensive or would you like it for nothing?
it is not just people on benefits that are lazy some people want too much in life on the backs of others wether they work or not.
workers want to play naff all tax have takeaways, holidays in marbella twice a year, drive around in a fiesta, booze it up to their hearts content and cannot be bothered to save a decent deposit for the banks on a mortgage.
even with another boom, you will go and blow all your equity in your home in more holidays, house extentions, new cars and fancy get togethers with your chums over christmas that you end up paying the rest of the year for. dont blame the system or people on benefits. benefits have been cut to the bone and more to come. i dont claim benefits i am entitled to i have lost about £100,000 in benefits over the last 8 years i have not claimed so we are all not spongers. we are all in this crap together it just the middle classes have a different idea of who is supposed to be cutting back and it is not them!!

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