Two major new stores are set to open their doors in the Tower Ramparts shopping centre well before Christmas.

And speculation is mounting that a third big name could be joining them – which could be bad news for the other end of the town centre.

Work to create a new River Island at the Tavern Street end of the centre is progressing well – that store will be moving from the other side of the street.

Now construction and shopfitting teams have moved into the large unit at the other end of the centre, the middle floor of what used to be Littlewoods, to create a new Iceland supermarket.

That will be a second store for the town centre – the store at St Matthews Street will continue to trade.

The three floors of the former Littlewoods store are being totally separated. Construction teams are removing escalators which linked them.

It is understood that the lower ground floor store is likely to become a new home for Poundland. That would mean its existing store in Carr Street – the old Woolworth’s – would close, which would be a major blow for that end of the town.

The QD store on the opposite side of the road closed suddenly last month – and traders in that part of the town are becoming increasingly concerned at the lack of large stores to attract shoppers.

Poundland would not comment on the speculation – a spokeswoman for the company there could be more information from them in the future.

Tower Ramparts is expected to get a major boost when the bus station reopens after its reconstruction as part of the Travel Ipswich project – the work is on schedule and should be completed early next month.