A £300,000 boost will aim to make the B4017 Wootton Road between Abingdon and Wootton safer for cyclists.

The work, due to be completed in the next year, will improve the design and layout of the road where John Mason School and Abingdon and Witney College are based.

The Department for Transport has pledged £207,000, while Oxfordshire County Council will contribute £95,500.

Abingdon cyclist Peter Burgess said: “If this scheme encourages children to cycle to and from school then it is good.

“We need to do everything we can to get more kids cycling – it could mean less traffic on school runs.”

Details about how exactly Wootton Road will be improved have not yet been released.

But the Department for Transport has said schemes being funded will involve improvements such as reallocation of road space, simplification of road layouts, designs that lower speed, and changes to crossings.

Between 2001 and 2011, the county council recorded 11 traffic accidents involving cyclists on the B4017, including one who was fatally injured.

In 2006, almost 300 people in signed a petition calling for an Abingdon to Wootton cycle track, which was presented to the county council.