Council depot on the market

The decision to seek either to sell or lease part of or all of the site has been taken as the Council prepares for the transfer of its highways services in April 2013.

Suffolk County Council is taking back all its Highways Agency functions in the town and transferring them to a single county-wide private operator. Up to now, the Borough Council has been undertaking highways work as agent for the County Council.

Councillor David Ellesmere, the Leader of Ipswich Borough Council, said it was prudent to look at options for Gipping House now. "We are testing the market, seeing what interest is out there for Gipping House. Clearly, after next April, around half of the site will be surplus to requirements, so we want to see if there is a commercial interest in purchasing or leasing that part of it. Of course, if a company insisted they required the whole site we would have to consider a deal on that basis. We would then look to relocate our refuse collection and housing maintenance operations elsewhere in Ipswich - it clearly is vital that we continue to deliver these services to people in the town."

Gipping House is on the town's Hadleigh Road Industrial Estate and offers circa 6,000 sq metres of space on a site 1.655 hectares.

The agents handling enquiries are FennWright, 1 Buttermarket, Ipswich IP1 1BA tel: 01473 232701.