A DRONE photographer has captured Jumbo in all its purple glory.

The iconic water tower was lit up every night this week by Conservative councillor for Castle Ward, Darius Laws, who is continuing his campaign to shed some more light on Colchester's heritage.

Mr Laws lit up Jumbo in bright purple light from 8pm to 1am, until last night.

The spectacle proved popular and one drone photographer, Adam Smith, 32, from Manningtree, flew his DJI Phantom 3 over the historic tower to get a closer look last night.

Mr Smith, who runs AJDroneOgraphy, took these stunning stills and a bird's-eye view video to share.

Mr Laws, who funded the purple Jumbo project using half of his £1,000 councillor locality budget said: "Overall, I've received nothing but positive feedback about lighting up Jumbo. I think it's certainly got people talking. 

"People want the council to make the most of our heritage and maximise the tourist opportunity by lighting up our Roman City Walls, our medieval buildings and our War Memorial. 

"I think most people would like to see Jumbo lit up permanently and it's not going to be rocket science to do. Once we've got the basics right we can start talking about creative video projections." 

He added: "It is embarrassing that at the moment more supermarkets are lit up at night than heritage sites which is why I'm calling on the council to stop shirking its responsibility and get Colchester heritage lit up."

Halstead Gazette:

Mr Laws also explained his reasoning behind choosing the bright purple hue.

He said: "Purple symbolises luxury to most people in the world and Jumbo being Colchester's top landmark it just felt a good idea.

"Also whilst my favourite colour is blue I didn't want people to accuse me of politicising Jumbo."

Colchester Council has already laid 22 state-of-the-art low energy LED lights under Balkerne Gate which lights up the site every evening.

Council bosses decided not to pursue a project lighting up Colchester's Roman Walls after a survey found it would cost up to £250,000. The council had initially budgeted to spend about £20,000.