About 500 extra car parking spaces have been made available in Ipswich town centre for music fans heading to Ed Sheeran’s concerts at Chantry Park over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Insurance giant Willis is opening its staff car park for concert goers at a flat rate of £20 a car on each night of the concerts.

The car park will be open for concert goers from 6pm on Friday evening - staff will be using it until then - and from 2pm on Saturday, Sunday, and Bank Holiday Monday.

Concert-goers will have to make their own way to Chantry Park - either walking or using one of Ipswich Buses' shuttle buses from the two bus stations or the railway station at a flat rate of £3 each.

People wanting to use the park will have to book their ticket on the MiPermit parking app which is backed by Ipswich Council and local authorities across the country.

This extra parking comes on top of the existing council parking in the Portman Road/Princes Street area and other town centre parks.

There are 500 spaces at the Copdock park and ride centre - with First Eastern Counties operating services for £5 a head. They cannot be booked in advance and are available on a first-come, first-served basis after 2pm on the day of each concert.

And the main park and ride is at Trinity Park for £12 a head (if booked in advance) or £15 a head on the night. These tickets can be booked online through the First Bus app.

There are also still parking spaces available at Chantry Academy which also have to be booked through the MiPermit app.

Although parking spaces have been made available, people driving from the town centre or car parks near Chantry Park will find there are road closures after the concerts.

In particular London Road will be closed for three hours at the end of every concert to allow pedestrians and buses the easiest possible access to take people back to their cars.

That will mean other roads from the town centre, particularly towards the south of the town, are likely to be very congested and could mean that there is congestion so people have to be prepared for a long delays before they are able to get home.

But a council spokesman said: "We are expecting 40,000 people each night - but it wasn't that long ago that we got 30,000 regularly for football, and we coped then!"