If you are looking for ways to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day We've also got a guide street parties included in case you are thinking of throwing one yourself A major highlight of the proceedings will be the beacon lighting across the country on Thursday 8 May (VE Day) Essex County Fire and Rescue have put some information together for those attending events: "Beacons across the country will be lit for a shared celebration of the 80th anniversary of VE Day We would encourage anyone celebrating VE to attend one of the organised events.  please follow these simple safety tips if you are thinking of lighting your own beacon Please let Essex County Fire and Rescue Service in advance if you plan to light a beacon Call their non-emergency number 01376 576000 and tell them the accurate location (What3words app recommend)." You can find details of the events across the county plus much more below: BETA Help us improve this site by giving feedback Danny Cowley has been in charge of Colchester since January 2024 Colchester United boss Danny Cowley hopes his good final-day record can help to conjure up a place in the League Two play-offs The U's are 10th following defeats in their past two games They must beat Barrow on Saturday and hope none of Salford Grimsby Town or Chesterfield are victorious in their games "I'm a football romantic so I always believe anything is possible for sure," Cowley told BBC Essex Sport "We've had some good moments last day of the season - in my first-ever season at Concord Rangers there were three of us that could all win the league and we won 1-0 "At Maldon & Tiptree we won to get into the play-offs we'd come from nowhere in our first season in Ryman Division One North." who beat Wrexham in their penultimate game to get into the National League play-off places and managed to hang on by beating Altrincham in their final game we drew with Yeovil to get into the play-offs in our first season back in League Two The final day has not always been positive for Cowley as his Portsmouth side lost to Accrington at home in front of an empty stadium because of Covid in 2021 allowing Oxford United to claim the final League One play-off spot "Football works in mysterious ways and I'm hoping it will turn the other way for us this time around," said Cowley Losses at Doncaster Rovers and Salford City saw Colchester slip from seventh place which they must now reclaim to have a chance of returning to League One for the first time since 2016 that negative results throughout the season had made the players work even harder we're going to do our best to try to get things done on Saturday and hope for the best," he told BBC Essex Sport "Naturally as a player you look at the league look at the fixtures and play different scenarios out in your head but ultimately we know we can only do what we can do "That is us working as hard as we can to get ourselves in the best shape possible and put a good performance on and I think we deserve that as a group." 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Small changes to the masterplan for a new community in North Essex have been backed and recommended by a joint committee of councillors the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community (TCBGC) Joint Committee met to discuss the future of the project including the Planning Inspector’s Final Report on the Development Plan Document (DPD) With the incorporation of the Inspector’s modifications the DPD – which sets out the overall approach for the new settlement – has been found sound and is legally compliant It was resolved by the Joint Committee to recommend to Tendring District Council and Colchester City Council that the DPD with the Inspector’s modifications be formally adopted and form part of the council’s Local Plans Each council will now consider and approve the DPD The Joint Committee’s recommendation to adopt the DPD marks an important milestone of many years’ intense effort and collaborative work from the three partner councils – Colchester City The DPD sets out the spatial development strategy for the Garden Community which aims to secure social It seeks to support the creation of a brand-new community in a comprehensively planned way from the outset and provides the opportunity to embrace and deliver the very best in placemaking with high sustainability standards Chair of the TCBGC Joint Committee and Leader of Colchester City Council said: “Along with my fellow Joint Committee colleagues from the partner councils I am delighted to recommend that the Development Plan Document goes to our councils for their formal adoption “The DPD has been found sound by an independent Planning Inspector Adoption by the councils as we now recommend will confirm the high standards of development we require and will reinforce our ability to shape and influence planning decisions The U's needed to win to have any hope of a top-seven finish but were held by the Bluebirds Ben Jackson curled a dipping shot just over and Tyler Smith headed over for Barrow while Jack Payne fired into the side netting from a tight angle for Colchester before half-time Colchester squandered a golden opportunity to go ahead on the hour mark when Samson Tovide was denied well by goalkeeper Wyll Stanway Colchester defender Fiacre Kelleher headed wide at the near post from a corner before Barrow were reduced to 10 men in the 76th minute when substitute Kyle Cameron was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity after bringing down Kyreece Lisbie as he tried to race through on goal Colchester substitute Tyreece Simpson's acrobatic effort from Ellis Iandolo's pass rattled a post while Matt Macey brilliantly denied Barrow substitute Chris Popov in stoppage time as it ended level To load Comments you need to enable JavaScript in your browser The BBC is not responsible for any changes that may be made substituted for Kyreece Joshua Lisbie at 68 minutesNumber 9 Whitfield Match OfficialsReferee: Ruebyn RicardoAssistant Referee 1: Kevin HowickAssistant Referee 2: Daniel D'UrsoFourth Official: Callum WalchesterMatch StatsKey Scroll LeftScroll RightColchester United have failed to win any of their last six league games against Barrow (D2 L4) Barrow are unbeaten across their last five away league games against Colchester (W3 D2) since a 4-1 defeat in April 1971 just a couple of months after the U’s had beaten top-flight Leeds in the FA Cup Colchester have lost just two of their last 11 final games of a fourth-tier campaign (W6 D3) – a 1-0 loss to Exeter City in 2018 and a 2-0 defeat to Mansfield Town in 2023 Barrow are winless across their last eight final games of a Football League season (D3 L5) conceding 22 goals in total across that time Chris Popov (Barrow) is shown the yellow card Sam Barnes (Barrow) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul Anthony Scully (Colchester United) wins a free kick in the attacking half Chris Popov (Barrow) right footed shot from very close range is saved in the bottom left corner MJ Williams (Barrow) is shown the yellow card Tom Flanagan (Colchester United) wins a free kick in the defensive half Niall Canavan (Barrow) wins a free kick in the defensive half Foul by Kyreece Lisbie (Colchester United) Jack Payne (Colchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left Fourth official has announced 7 minutes of added time Kane Vincent-Young (Colchester United) wins a free kick on the left wing Teddy Bishop (Colchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal