Plans for a new visitor centre including a café and accommodation at the Ipswich Garden Suburb country park are expected to get final approval next week.

The proposals for the visitor centre and other details at the country park between the homes on the Henley Gate development and the village of Westerfield are to be discussed by members of the borough's planning and development committee next Wednesday.

The principle of developing the park in the area has already been agreed - but the details need to be approved.

Planning officials are recommending that councillors give the green light to the proposals which would allow the centre to be built and hopefully become a hub for the new park.

The creation of the country park is a crucial element of the Henley Gate development which represents about a third of the total Ipswich Garden Suburb which will eventually stretch from Henley Road to Tuddenham Road, provide up to 3,500 homes, three new primary schools, a new high school and a new shopping centre.

The whole development is expected to take a least a decade to develop - but the first homes are now going up at Henley Gate, built by Crest Nicholson.

The visitor centre will have a café area with space for food preparation and storage. It will also have a community room that can be used for exhibitions, as a classroom or for meetings.

There will also be public toilets, an office and a mess room for rangers, who will maintain the park, in a single-storey building.

It will have timber walls, large areas of glazing and decking which should allow visitors to sit outside in fine weather. Planners say it will be in keeping with its surroundings.

Once the country park and the visitor centre are completed, the site will be taken over by the borough council which will manage the country park as part of its parks department.