Plans to build a drive-through Costa Coffee near Ransomes Europark are set to get the green light next week – which will see the sixth Costa in the town open.

A planning application was submitted in April for the unit, which will be built in the car park at The Sandlings, near the Burger King and Pizza Hut stores.

Planners have recommended the proposal be approved at next week’s planning and development committee, although question marks still remain over a public sculpture currently on the site.

An objection raised by the Ipswich Borough Council urban design team said: “Recommend refusal of proposed design on grounds of harm to landscape setting of wider retail park, including loss of public art.”

The application states that the sculpture would be relocated elsewhere on the site.

A statement from designers UrbanEdge Architecture in the application said: “It is hoped that the new Costa Coffee pod unit will help to strengthen the existing retail offer of the park, whilst assisting in bringing an ageing first-generation retail park up to a 21st Century standard.”

The store would mark the sixth Costa in Ipswich, with a further four express coffee outlets in service stations in the town.

A previous coffee shop on the first floor of WHSmith in Westgate Street was closed earlier this year.

Work has already satrted on a drive-through Starbucks at the opposite end of town, where London Road and Handford Road meet.

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