A HOMELESS man sleeping rough in an encampment close to a similar site which was broken up by council workers is appealing for help.

Last month council bosses employed rarely-used legislation to break up a camp on private land, off East Bay, Colchester.

Colchester Council acted after reports of anti-social behaviour, drinking and drug taking from nearby residents.

A stop notice was enforced, allowing police to clear the area, search tents and make arrests.

Now further camps have cropped up on nearby land, with several rough sleepers speaking to the Gazette about their situation.

Jamie Cross, 21, lives in one small encampment just off a pedestrian footpath with several others.

The desperate youngster says he used to live in Greenstead, but had been sleeping rough for months since he was kicked out of his home.

“We do not have anywhere else to go,” he said.

“At the end of the day we are people who have hit rock bottom - we wouldn’t be sleeping in bushes if we had a choice.

“There are quite a few of us living around here.

“We want the council to care about us, not just move us on.

“We have been moved along several times.”

Another unnamed 21-year-old said: “I have been homeless for about a year, it is a very long story.

“Basically I had been living with my mum but we didn’t get on.

“She kicked me out.

“I miss the little things really, like watching TV.”

Colchester councillor Mike Lilley, councillor responsible for community safety at Colchester Council, said he was aware of further camps and would be taking action.

He said: “I went down there myself on my push bike and saw an encampment.

“There has been two complaints from the public so far, but those have been more to do with people walking along the path and causing trouble.

“We will be carrying out an assessment of the camp as we did with the last one.

“We will be seeing who needs help, we have to make sure there are no people down there who are vulnerable and need to be looked after.”

He added: “We do try everything we possibly can to help, but there has already been one fight at the weekend and some anti-social behaviour in the area.

“I will look at identifying who is down there, together with the police and Beacon House.”