More than £400,000 has been secured by the county council to help pay for walking and cycling schemes across Warwickshire.

Active Travel England announced the funding, from its active travel capability fund, for Warwickshire County Council on Monday (January 2).

At £428,214 the sum is more than double that given to the local authority last year.

The funding will pay for early design work and consultation on walking and cycling routes.

Cllr Wallace Redford, portfolio holder for transport and planning, said: "We want to encourage and enable more people to choose to walk or cycle, particularly for short local trips, by providing the infrastructure and support that they need to take advantage of these low-cost, healthy and environmentally friendly ways of travelling. 

"We set out our plan for developing a countywide high-quality network of cycling and walking routes last year in our draft local cycling and walking infrastructure plan, which we expect to finalise later this year.

"The funding awarded to us this week through the Active Travel Capability Fund will fund important early phase design work on many of the prioritised routes identified in the plan and help us take an important step towards achieving our ambitious plans for walking, cycling and wheeling in Warwickshire."

The announcement follows the news that work on converting the Clarke's Avenue footbridge to cycle use has been delayed until March.

Local campaigners also continue to call on local councils to make sure there is safe cycling access to the new Kenilworth School when it opens in September.

The much-delayed K2L cycleway also remains in the design phase.