A PLAN which will map out a network of cycling routes through Bicester will be discussed by senior councillors today (September 15).

Oxfordshire County Council rolled out a flagship Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan for Oxford earlier in the year.

The council cabinet, its most senior councillors, will discuss a similar plan for Bicester this afternoon.

The Bicester LCWIP, as it is known, gives different options for how the roads in the town could be improved to encourage cycling and walking, ranging from an extra splash of paint on busy thoroughfares, to a series of road closures and low traffic neighbourhood schemes in the town.

In a draft version of the plan, the council said the number of cars on Bicester's roads will expand as the town's population grows from 30,000 currently to 55,000 by 2034.

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To ease congestion on the roads, the council wants to encourage a 50 per cent uptake in walking around Bicester and a 200 per cent uptake of cycling, the place of people using cars for short trips.

There are currently18,000 walking trips a day in Bicester, which could rise to 24,000 under this ambition; meanwhile the 3,000 cycle trips a day could rise to to 9,000 trips.

There is also a similar plan in the pipeline for Didcot in the near future.