More than 350 people have signed an online petition to stop a well-used walking and cycling path from being redesigned to include a bus route.

For the past seven months a section of Bowthorpe Hall Road in Norwich has been fenced off in preparation for plans to redevelop the lane.

Once complete, the tarmac path will include a bus route, with a pavement running alongside for pedestrians and cyclists.

But a growing online petition is calling for the council to find an alternative route for the bus.

The petition's organiser, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'I find it ridiculous that the council would approve of the degradation of a pleasant walking and cycling only route while at the same time spending money improving the other cycle routes in Norwich.

'New developments are an ideal time to include excellent walking and cycling provision and improve the already existing, much less costly than retrofitting improvements at a later date. This does the complete opposite.'

He said the proposed pavement alongside the bus lane was 'wholly inadequate' and would cause conflict between cyclists and pedestrians.

He added: 'To top it all off the plans also show that the path will be littered with poles for mounting traffic lights to control the flow of buses as it will be single file, thus also reducing the effective usable width.'

The council said the path would be 3m wide along the majority of the route, but reduced to a width of 2.4m at one short section.

The bus route will eventually serve the 32-hectare development at Three Score, which has planning permission for 1,000 homes.

A council spokesman said: 'We apologise to all those affected by the delay to Bowthorpe Hall Road and are pleased that the necessary work is now underway.

'Cyclists and pedestrians will soon be able to use the route again and we will also have an important piece of infrastructure in place for provision of a greatly improved bus service in the area.'

The route is expected to be re-opened in January 2016.

Is a cycle route near your being affected by development? Call Luke Powell on 01603 772684. 1.0.0.20