THE leader of Colchester Council has defended the town after a group of tourists vowed not to return after witnessing blatant drug-taking and anti-social behaviour in the streets.

Members of Archaeology Cymru travelled down to Essex from Wales on Friday for three days exploring Colchester’s rich heritage assets.

Although the group described the quality of the sights as “amazing”, problems with criminal behaviour and poor signage meant they ultimately left the town disappointed.

Karl-James Langford said: “We planned to visit the Roman remains and some medieval structures along the way.

“Even though we managed to achieve what we set out to, and the remains were amazing and well worth seeing, we would never recommended anyone to visit Colchester.”

Mr Langford said shortly after the group arrived in the town on Friday afternoon they witnessed people injecting drugs near both St Botolph’s Priory and the Roman wall in Priory Street car park. They also saw “heavy drug smoking” in the priory grounds.

Mr Langford continued: “By 5pm there was a great deal of drunken behaviour in the town centre and a number of our group were being harassed by these drunk people.

“On the Saturday things had not improved, and the smell of drugs was constantly in the air. Many of our party were just too afraid to venture away from the group.

“The sign-posting for Colchester historical sites is to be honest negligible. None of the locations on our itinerary were sign-posted which we could find, and any maps displayed were always the wrong way up and practically useless.”

However, hitting back, Colchester Council leader Mark Cory said the town had so much to offer and tourist numbers were on the up.

Gazette: Leader of Colchester Council Mark Cory has hit back at the group's claimsLeader of Colchester Council Mark Cory has hit back at the group's claims

“Colchester is a great place to visit and we have fantastic heritage assets in the town we are working to do more to promote,” he said.

“Yes, there are issues, but we are trying to improve things and the council is going way beyond what a council would normally do.

“We have invested in more police for the town centre and working with the police we have seen a reduction in crime.

“We have put our money where our mouth is and it has made a difference.

“I acknowledge there are some problems areas but we need the Government to invest back into our broken public services.”

He added new signs for the town centre were already being produced.