Lottery bid setback for Roman circus

Last week’s failure of Colchester Borough Council’s lottery bid for a circus interpretation centre came as a considerable blow for the town. The application for a grant of £950,000 was turned down by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) at the first hurdle. The committee acknowledged the outstanding heritage importance of the circus as well as the considerable public interest in a permanent interpretative display of its remains. Nevertheless, HLF decided against an award saying there were too many other claims on its limited funds.
With a building a quarter of a mile long, it was never going to be easy to treat the remains in a lively and informative way, especially since the site is crossed by public roads and is shared by several different owners.