WORK has finally started at a new research park which promises to offer thousands of new jobs in Colchester.

Mayor Sonia Lewis yesterday cut the symbolic first turf to mark the start of Essex University’s Knowledge Gateway project.

The project, 21 years in the planning, involves the phased development of 40 acres of land at the edge of the university campus between the railway line and Elmstead Road.

As many as 2,000 people could eventually work there, with hundreds involved in building the complex.

Mrs Lewis said: “This is a very exciting project for Colchester. There is far more to it than I envisaged. It is going to bring a lot of education facilities and jobs to Colchester.”

The research park was originally planned as a general business park, mainly for companies designing new hi-tech products.

When the recession hit the scheme’s financing, the university gave it a boost by announcing it would build its Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution on the site.

The hope is the prestigious international institute will attract organisations in the human rights field to the park, helping to kickstart the commercial site of the development.

A hotel, leisure facilities and student accommodation blocks are also planned.

The university and its commercial partner, Carisbrooke Alliance, have put up £7million to create roads, drains, electricity and gas supplies and other infrastructure, including a new junction linking the site to Clingoe Hill.

About 30 staff, mostly from north Essex, will shortly be recruited by Jackson Civil Engineering for the initial stage of the project, which is due to finish in April.

Project manager Graham Joyner promised disruption to those living and working nearby would be kept to a minimum.

He said: “We’ve got to maintain bus routes throughout. Later, they will have to be diverted along the new road we are building.

“When we do the works on Clingoe Hill, we will have 24-hour traffic management. We will be working seven days a week, mostly at off-peak times.”