Town have applied to Ipswich Borough Council for planning permission for work to be undertaken at Portman Road including alterations to the corner between the Sir Alf Ramsey and Cobbold Stands, the installation of a big screen and changes to the dugouts.
The application had been expected with developments to Portman Road having been outlined by the new owners since last April’s takeover.
The demolition of part of the corner at the south-east of the ground is required to facilitate access for the installation of a new Desso surface [a hybrid natural grass artificial fibre pitch] with entry routes currently limited to the tunnel area.
It is a project being led by chairman Mike O’Leary and, speaking at a fans’ forum in November, he said it was progressing well.
"At the moment, our dugouts are too adjacent and could lead to interesting moments,” O’Leary joked.
"We’re looking to slightly realign the positioning of the dugouts. But the crux of it is that the most important first step that we have to take is to punch a hole in the corner of the ground here to allow trucks to get in and out because until we can do that, we can’t bring anything inside that we need to produce the new pitch or to put the undersoil heating in when we do that too.
"Of course, having decided that that was the first step, we then discovered that we couldn’t do it without planning permission.
"We have to first of all get planning permission and build regs approval for punching a hole in the corner of the stadium at the far end of the Cobbold Stand in the corner.
"Secondly, we’re planning where we will put a big screen in that corner. It’s got to be a suitable height for everyone to be able to see it and it’s got to be at a suitable height for us to get articulated vehicles in beneath it.
"We also have a challenge of dealing with a very high voltage cable that travels across that corner, which happens to feed the floodlights. So, we’ve got to be a little bit careful we don’t do damage to that.
"And we have to deal with drainage because the new generation pitches of the type that we’re looking to put in actually drain considerably more quickly than the traditional pitch that we have today, which gives us an issue of where the water run-off goes.
"So there’s lots of detail behind the scenes going on. Our intention is to meet again in about two or three weeks from today to look at where we are in a number of key steps.
"First of all approaching the local authority about planning approval. Secondly, appointing a contractor to lead the process for us and thirdly, starting to think about where the other peripheral pieces all fit in that overall plan.
"It’s possible that we won’t get all of this done in the close season that we’re coming up to in May/June [2022] but that’s at the moment our goal. Our goal is to do the whole thing with many of the tasks being done in parallel rather than sequentially.
"We’ve made good progress and I’m very pleased to say I think the architects are doing us a very sound job in helping us to set the levels and get the pitch design done properly.”
Applications usually take around eight weeks to be approved which seems likely to mean the pitch development will be delayed until the summer of 2023.
Town will be giving further information on the plans in due course.