IPSWICH: It is currently a building site which stands half-completed in the middle of the town centre.

But work to transform an iconic landmark is well under way and is due to be formally unveiled in August.

As the picture above shows, once completed, the impressive new Giles Circus will give the town a massive boost.

Giles Circus is undergoing a �650,000 makeover to create a public space to show off the statue of Grandma and her family which has stood on the site since the early 1990s.

The six-month rebuilding work started in February, and the statue itself – which was created by sculptor Miles Robinson – is currently in safe keeping at the borough’s depot in Hadleigh Road.

It will be taking up a new position just outside Barclays Bank when it returns to the site later in the year.

Most of the cost of the new square – �400,000 – has come from funding from the Haven Partnership in order to create the new landmark in the middle of town.

Once it reopens, there will be much less traffic and most of the area will be pedestrianised with a row of trees at the side of the paved roadway.

A key element of the work has also been to move the parking area for motorcycles – allowing the line of the road itself to be taken nearer the buildings at the junction of Queen Street and Prince’s Street.

Legendary cartoonist Carl Giles worked from a studio on the junction of Queen Street and Princes Street for nearly 50 years creating Daily and Sunday Express cartoons featuring Grandma and her family.

A spokesman for Ipswich Borough Council said the 26-week programme was on target and should be completed by mid-August, allowing Grandma and her family to return to the town centre in time for high summer.

n Will the rebuilding work improve the town centre? Is it worth the �650,000 cost? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk