WORK starts today on a £1m path for pedestrians and cyclists alongside the River Itchen in Southampton.

The project will create a boardwalk from just south of Horseshoe Bridge by the railway line at St Denys to the Mount Pleasant Industrial Estate in Northam.

The boardwalk will create a traffic-free link to the city centre for thousands of people to walk or cycle to school and work with views of the estuary into Southampton Water.

It will eventually join a cycle route across Cobden Bridge and on as far as Riverside Park.

The scheme was proposed by transport charity Sustrans, which will pay £450,000 of the costs through a lottery grant. The remainder of the money is coming from the city council.

Ringwood-based firm Avon Construction will be creating the path and while work takes place the existing route will be closed to the public for the duration. Work is due to be complete by August with the route opening in its entirety in the autumn.

Simon Pratt, Sustrans regional manager for the South East, said: “This work will hugely improve this vital link which we know people already use. At the moment there are risks at high tide but once the new boardwalk is in place, people can safely and easily travel to and from the city centre by foot or by bike. We look forward to seeing the whole scheme finished by later this year so that people in Southampton can start using it.”