On first glance, there may not be anything particularly significant about a rickety double-decker bus which trundled along ancient roads in 1950s Essex, but come the 1970s, when the vehicle was clad in iconic psychedelic colours, it arguably became the most famous bus in the world.

The reason for this was that it was chosen by Paul McCartney to be the vehicle in which he toured the continent with his newly formed band Wings in 1972; now, hopes are high that the bus could be brought back to Essex to be a major tourist attraction for McCartney and Beatles fans the world over.

Having been a traditional service bus in the 1950s with a maximum speed of less than 38mph, few could have foreseen that it would, 20 years later, become hotly pursued by a media scrum as Paul McCartney toured the continent in his Wings Over Europe Tour.

The bus had previously toured universities across England, including Essex, as part of the Wings University Tour earlier that year – and rather than touring Nottingham, Hull, Sheffield, and Swansea, it would soon be touring Paris, Munich, Copenhagen, and Helsinki.

The bus had in fact gone missing for decades and was subsequently found in Spain in 2019 – since then, it has been bought my Tom Jennings – a somebody – who has raise enough money to completely restore the bus.

He has since offered the bus to councils across Essex for use at entertainments, and in Colchester, Councillor Mike Lilley is looking to bring the bus and make it a tourist attraction for people visiting the city.

Mr Lilley said: “I’ve written to the leader of the council and suggested that we apply for the bus to come to Colchester on a permanent basis.

“They’ve converted the top of the bus for band performances, so why can’t we have it at Castle Park or Firstsite?

“We were looking at it and we need to get things rolling – then we can begin the process to get it to come to Colchester.

“We need to grab this opportunity before other people do.”