Glenn Williamson of GW Rentals is concerned about future plans for Lower Brook Street.

A busy town centre street could undergo a major overhaul if controversial travel proposals are rubber-stamped.

As part of a consultation, residents and business owners in Lower Brook Street have lodged their objections to the plans for the road, which include making it one-way, restricting parking, providing loading bays and widening the pavements.

The changes have been proposed under the £21million Travel Ipswich initiative, which has been funded by the Department for Transport and Suffolk County Council to implement improvements to cycling, walking and bus travel within the town.

Glenn Williamson, a resident and business owner in the street, said: “They are proposing making it one-way coming down. This is not necessary – it works perfectly well as a two-way road.

“However if it is decided that it should be one-way, the direction of traffic flow has to be in the upwards direction towards town.

“As it is currently suggested, it makes no sense. By having the flow in this direction it will force people to have to loop around, putting much more unnecessary traffic at the bottom of Upper Brook Street.

“Lower Brook Street only has one current problem and that is caused by inconsiderate car drivers parking on both sides on Sundays.

“This virtually blocks the road making it difficult to drive through and impossible for larger vehicles – transit vans, lorries and emergency vehicles – to pass.

“All that is needed to sort this problem is to place full restrictions on any parking on the right-hand side of the road as looking towards town.”

The proposals are:

-to widen footways, improve street lighting, drainage and cycle parking/

- to introduce a one-way restriction to enable vehicles to travel from Tacket Street to Foundation Street with a contra-flow cycle lane (unmarked) to be provided in a northbound direction.

- to provide loading bays and introduce other parking restrictions.

Two Toucan crossings are also proposed, one in Star Lane and the other in College Street.

A Suffolk County Council spokesman said: “We will happily look at any suggestions made by residents or business owners.”

If agreed, the provisional start date for these works is February 2013 and it is expected to take around 12 weeks.