EMPTY town centre shops will be brightened up with artwork and could even be used as spaces for students to start up businesses.

Colchester Council’s scrutiny panel welcomed Sam Good, Colchester’s Business Improvement District (BID) manager, to its meeting.

Mr Good gave a presentation on what the BID has achieved so far and plans for the future.

The BID has an annual budget of about £460,000 and panel members discussed what the money could be spent on.

With an eight per cent vacancy rate, Colchester is below the national average in East Anglia for vacant units. However, the meeting was told they cannot be ignored and in October the BID is hoping to launch an empty units project.

Mr Good said: “We will be launching a vacant unit vision in partnership with Firstsite where we will be working with a renowned artist Mark Titchner.

“Mark will be completing some community engagement workshops to create artwork bespoke for Colchester town centre.

“We will then vinyl the front windows of ten vacant units alongside opening a studio to present Mark’s work.”

Panel chairman Beverly Davies suggested students using empty units for start-up businesses.

She said: “If there was someone at the university or college who has an idea for a business they can have a rent-free space for some time, it will bring people in.”

Mr Good said it may be a challenge with business rates. He said: “Landlords have said you can’t have what you want for free, but what I would like us to achieve is some kind of business rate relief.”

The Our Colchester BID has also taken over leadership of organising Christmas in Colchester 2019, with a budget of £53,000. A total of £30,000 will be BID funding alongside extra funding from Culver Square shopping centre, Fenwick and Colchester Council.

✓ So far the BID has launched its InColchester website to connect town centre businesses and shoppers. BID in Bloom was launched in June and more than 100 plants have appeared around the town.

Street Ambassadors have also been employed to report street issues such as begging and vandalism and an online alert platform has been set up to drive down low-level crime.

Mr Good said: “Businesses can share people’s pictures so they can be banned from other places.

“One thing Colchester has struggled with is the perception of the night time economy. We want to eradicate that perception of negativity.”