Local cyclists are soon to benefit as funding has been approved for a long-awaited cycle superhighway linking Warwick and Leamington.

And the scheme along the A445 Emscote Road will also see vital maintenance work carried out to the listed Portobello Bridge together with improvements to key junctions along the route.

Councillors agreed to allocate £6.645m from the capital investment fund at the Warwickshire County Council's cabinet meeting this week with the total cost expected to top £10m.

Cllr Jeff Clarke (Con, Nuneaton East), the portfolio holder for transport and planning, said: "The expected delivery date is 2023 but whenever you are doing bridges and structures over water they can come with some complications.

"This has been a vexatious issue over many years not least because of the design style of the bridge. The purpose of the scheme is to enable improvements at key pinch points along the Emscote Road corridor between Warwick and Leamington. It is a key route which suffers from congestion during the peak hours.

"We intend to keep the structure but it will have a new platform bed on the top. There are constraints to make sure it is safe because 30,000 go over it each day including HGVs and buses."

Earlier in the meeting, Leamington mayor Susan Rasmussen called on councillors to support the proposal.

She said: "I would say this is likely to be very popular within Leamington. There is not a single town that has ever been improved by an increase in traffic and by decreasing traffic – which is what a well-used cycleway helps to do – it will improve the life chances and lifestyle of everyone living there."

And there was also support from Cllr Bill Gifford (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) who praised the fact that cycling charity Sustrans had been involved in the design of the cycleway.

He added: "One of the biggest things stopping the modal shift is the perceived danger and hopefully this will get rid of that. At the moment that perceived danger is a real danger. There have been a number of accidents."

A report into the Emscote Road corridor improvements outlined some of the issues faced by road users.

It explained: "It currently suffers significant congestion during peak hours due to capacity constraints at key junctions. Delays caused to bus services and the inadequacy of current cycling and pedestrian provision make sustainable transport alternatives unattractive.

"A further issue is Portobello bridge; a listed structure that suffers with a number of long-standing issues. The bridge is structurally weak. One footway has been closed, narrowing the existing carriageway, and this encumbers both pedestrians and cyclists. Maintenance work to the bridge is essential and can be delivered as part of this scheme.

"The proposed scheme will deliver a segregated cycle superhighway along the Emscote Road Corridor, providing high-quality, safe, direct and continuous cycle and pedestrian provision connecting the town centres of Warwick and Leamington."