UNIVERSITY students helped complete 19 volunteering projects around Colchester.

Schemes ranged from renovating community meeting rooms to giving part of Greenstead a facelift by painting a row of 14 unloved garage doors.

More than 200 people were involved from the Students’ Union vTeam in the blitz last week, and they also braved wintery conditions to build a wooden causeway through marshy woodlands in Alresford and did a clean-up of the riverbank in Wivenhoe, rescuing everything from For Sale signs and desks from the River Colne.