TOWN chiefs are to call for top-notch travel arrangements to help cope with the impact of a new super sixth form centre for more than 2,000 students.

Neil Puffett

TOWN chiefs are to call for top-notch travel arrangements to help cope with the impact of a new super sixth form centre for more than 2,000 students.

By 2014 the £74million SWISS centre, to be built off London Road at Copdock, will be able to accommodate 2,200 pupils from the Shotley peninsula, Hadleigh, East Bergholt, and a large area of Ipswich.

Planners at Ipswich Borough Council said it is important that Suffolk County Council, the organisation behind the plans, makes sure it has every angle covered when it comes to getting people to and from the centre.

Members of Ipswich Borough Council's planning committee were due to meet today to discuss their response to the plans after being invited to give representations by the county council.

A report on the issue states it will be essential for the county council to ensure its travel plan works should the development get the go-ahead.

It reads: “The travel plan estimates that 60 per cent of students and 10pc of staff will travel by bus and suggests that six existing bus services should be enhanced and three new 'educational transport services' be introduced during the morning between 8am and 9am and in the afternoon between 3pm and 5pm periods.

“One particular concern is that the travel plan has estimated that 11pc of students attending in 2011 will be from the IP4 postcode, yet no bus service improvements are identified within the travel plan that would benefit this postcode area.”

The need to protect existing residential parking in the vicinity of the site was also highlighted along with the importance of a new footbridge to allow people to move safely between the sixth form centre and Tesco on the other side of the dual carriageway section of London Road.