Column: Former councillor, mayor and MP Sir Bob Russell is the only person who still has a public profile from when the current Colchester borough was established in 1974. Here he writes about the political evolution at the town hall over the past five decades THE merger of town and country local councils in 1974 has seen several changes to the political administration of Colchester Council. Back then, it was a joint-administration with the Conservatives and Labour each not quite achieving a majority on the 60-seat council, with three Tiptree Residents’ Association councillors holding the balance. Today’s borough is a combination of the historic area of Colchester, the former urban district council areas of West Mersea and Wivenhoe and the 30 or so villages which formed the former rural district council area called Lexden and Winstree (named after Saxon Hundreds from 1,000 years ago, although urban Lexden was in the historic borough).