A TOWN centre eyesore will finally receive some care and attention from developers who were warned by Colchester Council to clean up their act.

The owners of the dilapidated ex-Odeon cinema in Crouch Street, Colchester, were ordered by the council to make the site more attractive back in October.

Blu-Marble Properties was issued a Section 215 Notice (untidy site notice) and was given 28 days to clean up the grubby frontage and overgrown vegetation.

However, after receiving the warning, the owners confessed the plans to overhaul the cinema may have to go back to the drawing board as they said they were no longer financially viable.

The £10 million plans, which were approved in April, will see 57 apartments created in the Crouch Street building.

The owners have now made contact with the council regarding the untidy site notice, and have said work will begin next week when a painted hoarding will be put up across the entire front of the building.

The front windows will be boarded and painted and the vegetation will be removed.

The works are expected to take three weeks and should be finished just after Christmas.

Mike Lilley (Lab), councillor responsible for planning and licensing, said: “I’m pleased the agents have heeded our enforcement notice and work will begin next week to improve the façade of the building and, above all, make it safe and secure.

“We want to make our town centre a place where people like to shop, work and visit, so when it became necessary to act, we stepped in and insisted the owners took responsibility, showed some consideration to their neighbours and tidied up their property.”

Action was taken as the site continued to attract antisocial behaviour, including drinking and drug-taking.

It has also been targeted by arsonists.

The untidy site notice states the building must be “brought back to a visual acceptable standard”.