As the year draws to an end, Ipswich council has produced figures showing just how busy it has been over the last 12 months.

Sold nearly 300,000 tickets for shows at the Regent and Corn Exchange

During 2015 its staff will have emptied more than four million bins – brown, black and blue – on their journeys around town.

Staff in the emergency control centre will have helped keep the town safe by monitoring more than 200 CCTV cameras

More than half a million swimming tickets have been sold at Crown Pools

More than 30,000 visitors have been to the Constable exhibition at the Mansion

It has dealt with 1,257 planning applications (up 6% on the previous year). Including Sailmakers and the Buttermarket.

On average 93% of the applications were approved, either by officers or by the planning committee.

There have been around 200,000 customers to the Tourist Information Centre in St Stephen’s Church. It has also awarded £1m in community and arts grants

On the housing front, the borough has 8,000 council homes – and has seen the number rise by more than 100 over the last year, largely because of the new development in Bader Close.

It has made 122,000 visits to sheltered scheme residents.

Council staff have cut 1,100 acres of grass in parks, open spaces and on verges. Among those who appreciated that were the 40,000 people who went to Ipswich Music Day in Christchurch Park in July.

And it has helped 46 organisations through our Area Committees with funding totalling £130,000 and generating another £500,000 in match funding.

Council leader David Ellesmere said: “We deliver a wide range of quality services to the people of Ipswich. We are a key regional centre in the east of England and the council’s culture and sport facilities bring tens of thousands of visitors to Ipswich every year.

“We will continue to build homes and create new jobs, provide events and fitness opportunities, help the homeless and make Ipswich a safer place to live in and work in.”