North West Leicestershire District Council leader Cllr Richard Blunt says the decision to abandon HS2 in the region leaves the way open for a cycleway from Coalville to Ashby.

Cllr Blunt was speaking at the council's Cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening.

The committee members discussed future funding for the North West Leicestershire Cycling and Walking Infrastructure plan and strategy.

It was agreed that a strong cycleway network would enhance the region and the committee hoped that some of the £400million transport boost for the county would be directed towards North West Leicestershire.

Cllr Blunt said: "This is good in a lot of ways.

"The North West Leicestershire towns are not far apart 

"It takes five minutes to drive from Coalville to Ashby, if you put cycleways in there, they are doable distances.

"Certainly getting better access to money is something we need to do. 

"This is the future for leisure, massively, and indeed for people going to work as well. I know that people move to Melbourne because the cycleway goes into Derby, for people that work at Rolls Royce. People can choose houses because they're in the right places. 

"There's only one thing better than cycling and it's cycling on a cycleway, where you feel safer.

"But if you think about what HS2 was going to do locally, was just put a huge wall right the way through North West Leicestershire from top to bottom. 

"Now, there's the opportunity to properly connect if you're building a cycleway from Ashby to Coalville, we don't have to go over or above a major railway line.

"So the fact that we have some of that HS2 money means it can be used for much more smaller scale schemes, which is much better."

Cllr Michael Wyatt added: "There's no doubt getting more people to walk and cycle in North West Leicestershire will enhance the profile of the district as being a great place to live, work and visit.

"But it will also help people to be more active and healthier, as well as reducing carbon emissions."