One of the leading voices against proposals for a £3.5million revamp of the Cornhill in the heart of the town has been the Ipswich Society.

In their latest newsletter, Society chairman John Norman has suggested 10 alternative schemes that could improve the town centre without costing such a lot of money.

Among his proposals are repairing or replacing all the broken paving stones and bricks in the town centre.

Mr Norman said: “When utilities have dug up the paving, there is often a temporary repair of tarmac which is left for ages and looks unsightly. If this is replaced by paving it often doesn’t match the colour.

“They should have to remove the paving, keep it safe and then replace it, if then want to dig up the town centre.”

He said regulations keeping cars off several town centre streets should be more rigorously enforced – ironically only hours after the publication of his list police staff started stopping cars using Dogs Head Street.

All vehicles should be banned from town centre roads during the day except for emergency vehicles – in the 21st century there was no need for an exemption for security vans delivering money to banks.

Other suggestions include diverting buses away from Museum Street, Queen Street and Upper Brook Street and finding a new use for some of the most prominent buildings.

Mr Norman suggests that the Great White Horse on the junction of Tavern Street and Northgate Street should be converted into flats.

The ground floor has been converted into shops and a cafe but the hotel bedrooms have been unused for many years.

He suggests that cycling should be banned during the day time on busy roads in the town centre – and that the ban should be enforced.

And he also says that there should be some necessary maintenance to the Cornhill to return it to the condition it was in when pedestrianised in 1986.

This should include new electricity supplies for market stalls, which should be re-aligned to avoid causing an obstruction to Westgate Street.