Cyclists could soon be able to ride from Sutton and Mepal into Ely on a purpose-built route.

Cambridgeshire County Council has earmarked £350,000 in its cycling budget to complete missing sections of cycleway between Wentworth and Witcham Toll that will link ultimately link Sutton with Witchford.

A cycleway linking Witchford with Ely is already in place so the new route would potentially allow cyclists in Mepal to travel the eight miles into Ely by bike.

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council said it was hoped that work would start on the route this year and that it would be a shared cycleway and pedestrian route set back from the road.

District and county councillor for Ely, Mike Rouse welcomed the news but said more was needed to link the Sutton-to-Witchford cycleway with Ely.

He said: “What we need to concentrate on now is improving the crossing points from the roundabout near Little Chef into Ely so we can link the whole thing up.

“And we really need to get some sort of safer crossing system for cyclists at Lancaster Way so that it doesn’t take them past the busy entrance and exit to the site.”

The county council had considered funding a new cycleway from Ely into Stuntney but Cllr Rouse said that due to “delays with the bypass” it was decided to spend the money on the Sutton-to-Witchford route instead.

A spokesman for the Ely Cycling Campaign also welcomed the news, saying: “This would give the residents of Sutton and Mepal a relatively safe cycle route all to Witchford and Ely.

“It would allow children from Sutton and Mepal to cycle to Witchford Village College and people in Sutton and Mepal to ride into Ely for work, to commute to the station, to shop, go out and so on.

“There are also several employment locations along the route, Lancaster Way and the Business Park at Sutton for example, where people could then cycle to work. So it starts to open up a lot of opportunities for people to choose to cycle instead of using their cars.”

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council did not respond when asked to comment on when work on the cycleway would begin.