Town CEO and chairman Mark Ashton says the club are looking to speak to National Highways and Greater Anglia regarding transport arrangements to and from Portman Road matches.

On a number of occasions over the years major roads into Ipswich have been closed after Town games causing significant issues for both away fans and Blues supporters based further afield.

Similarly, rail journeys have regularly been disrupted by maintenance work at weekends.

“Transport and travel to the stadium is also something that I’m really passionate about,” Ashton told TownTV.

“It’s something that’s been raised at numerous Fans’ Forums and supporters talk to me about all the time.

“It was highlighted with some of the challenges that could have happened in and around the Ed Sheeran concerts with the A12 and the A14 potentially being shut at that point.

“So we’ve now requested, supported by our local authority, a meeting with National Highways because we have to have a plan and they have to work with us and understand that if they make a decision on the A12 and the A14, it impacts game day here. It impacts travel to our stadium for our supporters and visiting supporters.

“And it’s not a difficult thing to plan. We know when the fixtures are going to be, so we want to work closely with National Highways to try and address that.

“Greater Anglia, again, questions are asked to me by supporters. Rail works have to happen, but we want better dialogue.

“Greater Anglia has now been nationalised, I’ve requested a meeting with their new commercial and marketing director to discuss this to put Ipswich Town’s case forward.

“There needs to be dialogue because we travel to games. A lot of our supporters travel on rail. The stadium is, what, 150 yards from the train station?

“We need better dialogue. So myself and my teams are right on the front foot with this. National Highways, Greater Anglia, our local authority and IBC have been extremely supportive in working with us on these things.

“And it’s the same with road closures around the stadium. We’ve now got a group of people who are working and talking as one to make access and egress from Portman Road as easy as we possibly can.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, but we are right on it because our supporters are so important to us.”

Photo: TownTV