ONE of the first projects which will provide accommodation for the influx of students expected to arrive in Ipswich to study at the town's new university has been given the go-ahead.
ONE of the first projects which will provide accommodation for the influx of students expected to arrive in Ipswich to study at the town's new university has been given the go-ahead.
The building at 75 Grimwade Street in Ipswich town centre will provide 49 bedrooms for students in what its designers have described as a “modest, well-mannered” building.
Ipswich Borough Council gave the project the green light this week and the building is expected to be ready to take students by August next year.
London-based developers Providus Student Accommodation said it would become Ipswich's first new purpose-built student accommodation.
The Grimwade Street site, which currently houses a small bungalow, will place it in close proximity to the new university campus and the rooms will be completely fitted out and furnished to allow students to move in as they are.
Roger Gilles, senior partner at Ipswich's Barefoot and Gilles Architects which designed the building, said: “It's a well-mannered, modern building. We hope that it will be used as an example for all other student accommodation coming along.
“When the new intake comes down to look at Ipswich it's going to be important there is good accommodation for them.
“This is going to be a flagship development.
“All the student bedrooms will be completely fitted out.”
Providus today said it had identified Ipswich as an area it wanted to focus on because it saw the town as an area of high potential in the future.
It said by 2008, it would have been responsible for £25million worth of developments in the town, including recently committing £240,000 to the restoration of the grade II listed St Michael's Church in Upper Orwell Street.
In February, the team behind University Campus Suffolk revealed it had held talks with a number of developers looking at building similar accommodation facilities in the town.
UCS will take its first students in September 2007.
Are you looking forward to the arrival of thousands of students in Ipswich? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.
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