A £25MILLION cycling strategy has been officially launched by city councillors.

The ten-year plan, set to run until 2027, will see the Southampton transformed into a “true cycling city” where “safe cycling is a daily norm.”

Launching the scheme were council chief Simon Letts, transport boss Jacqui Rayment and Christopher Hammond, cabinet member for transformation projects.

As previously reported, councillors hope the plans will ease congestion and provide a number of integrated cycle routes around the city so that people can get from one side to the other entirely by bike.

And bike activists say they are “excited” about the plans.

Liz Batten and Colin Macqueen from Clean Air Southampton campaign group, have just returned from a study visit to Holland, where they were studying Dutch cycling success.

Liz said: “It’s a real psychological shift, but if you build it, people will use it.”

Colin added: “There are lots of solutions for places with not much space - you can have vehicles on one side of the road and bikes going two ways on the other. But you have to be flexible.”

But the activists - who set up the group after retiring - said to properly transform the city would cost more than £25million - although Liz said she “wouldn’t like to guess how much”.

A spokesperson for the council said: “As well as the secured funding we have secured for the first three years, we will continue to pursue external funding from various sources such as developer contributions, bids to central Government, the EU, Solent LEP, and other sectors and organisations.”

As previously reported, the plans include parking and maintenance hubs, signs and a public hire service.