Work has begun to Portman Road as part of a multi million-pound upgrade ahead of Ipswich Town's long-awaited return to the Premier League.

Workers and equipment have been spotted around the stadium as new projects to get the ground to a top-flight standard have started.

The upgrade will include safe standing in the Upper Cobbold stand, new camera points from around the stadium, a new TV gantry and new floodlights in order to meet stringent Premier League rules.

East Anglian Daily Times: Works have begun on Portman RoadWorks have begun on Portman Road (Image: Newsquest / Will King)

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The away allocation at Portman Road will also be extended from about 2,000 supporters to 3,000 to comply with the new rules.

East Anglian Daily Times:

Mark Ashton revealed the news of the upgrades in an interview with TownTV, saying: "All of this work is costing several million pounds, but it has to be done. These are minimum requirements.

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"Our floodlights are around 750/800 wattage and we've got to up them to around 1700/1800 wattage for the whole stadium. We'll move to an LED system. The whole stadium is going to look very, very different under light."

"Fans have approached change fantastically well in the past and I would ask them to do the same again."

"These projects have been thought through in detail. We have challenged ourselves, we have worked with the local authority, we have worked with key stakeholders to come up with what we believe are the best solutions."