CYCLISTS may soon be mixing with shoppers in Ipswich's town centre after new rules due to be announced today mean they are finally allowed to ride bikes.

CYCLISTS may soon be mixing with shoppers in Ipswich's town centre after new rules due to be announced today mean they are finally allowed to ride bikes.

Bikes had previously been banned from Carr Street, Tavern Street, Cornhill and Westgate Street, but after campaigning from cycle groups Ipswich Borough Council decided to change this policy so cyclists were not excluded from the town centre.

So now bikes are allowed on those roads between 4.30pm and 10.30am as long as they travel in a westerly direction.

Peter Miller from the Ipswich Cycle Campaign, said: “We are pleased about this; the town centre route could provide a better route through the town centre for lots of people.

“It is something the Ipswich Cycle Campaign has been working on for more than 10 years.

“And we have ambitions for cycling to go a lot further; we want it to be safer and more attractive.

“Some pedestrians might be concerned about it but research shows that cycling in pedestrian areas is very safe, and that the people who behave badly would have behaved badly anyway.

“Most cyclists slow down and stop cycling when the conditions get very busy.”

He added: “I want cycling to become a much more mainstream way of getting around. As a cyclist I notice it isn't in the culture in Ipswich the way it is in other parts of Europe and Britain.”