JUST months after it opened to the public, the new car park at Ipswich station is regularly full.And work on another two multi-storey car parks is due to start within the next few months.

By Paul Geater

JUST months after it opened to the public, the new car park at Ipswich station is regularly full.

And work on another two multi-storey car parks is due to start within the next few months.

All these developments are going ahead with the support of Ipswich council – which has come under fire from some motorists for being "anti-car."

The Ipswich station park created about 200 new spaces – and another 350 will be created when TXU builds a new car park for its staff in Constantine Road.

That will be built on land the energy giant is buying off the borough council for about £250,000.

Although it will essentially be a staff car-park, it will also be available to football fans on Saturday afternoons when Ipswich Town are playing at home.

Later in the year work is due to start on a new multi-storey car park on the surface park behind Kartouche.

Already re-named the Ipswich Village car park, this is the main overflow park for the railway station.

Borough chief executive James Hehir is playing a key role in the development of the Ipswich Village area.

"The work on the new TXU car park should be co-ordinated with the football close season as much as possible," he said.

"And the new multi-storey behind Kartouche will only take part of the existing site – there will still be land available for parking while it is being built."

The station multi-storey car park opened in September, and for the last few weeks has been regularly full up by mid-morning on weekdays.

"We were unable to build it any larger because of planning and financial constraints, but we are very pleased about its success," said Peter Meades of Anglia Railways, which built the park.

"It will be interesting to see if the completion of the TXU park has any affect on our business there," he said.