CYCLISTS will be allowed to ride the wrong way up one-way streets in the City in a new scheme to encourage more people to ride to work in the Square Mile.

The Corporation of London has agreed permission to allow cyclists to ride against the traffic in seven streets in a £45,000 project beginning in early summer.

If the plan proves popular - and safe - city chiefs said today that it could be expanded to other areas.

Christine Mackenzie Cohen, chairwoman of the corporation's planning and transportation committee, said: "This project has two main benefits: safety and convenience. It will make cycling in the City safer by enabling cyclists to avoid busy streets."

She said council chiefs were confident that allowing two-way cycling on one-way streets would not endanger the lives of motorists or cyclists. "The City of London Corporation has spent a lot of time and effort researching the safety aspects."

Before the change can be made, the corporation will have to apply for a traffic regulation order. The project - thought to be the widest scale of its kind in the capital to date - has had a mixed response from cycling and motoring organisations.

The RAC Foundation said: "We are not against the scheme, but we would be insistent that it is carefully signed and carefully enforced."

Charlie Lloyd, cycling development officer for the London Cycling Campaign, said: "It provides a lot more route choice to people, and it means cyclists are not forced onto main roads."

Edmund King, president of the AA, warned of a potential danger to pedestrians. "On a number of one-way streets we have witnessed problems with pedestrians checking traffic in the one-direction, stepping out on to the road, and then nearly being hit by cyclists riding illegally the wrong way."

The streets involved in the project are: West Smithfield - connecting to Giltspur Street; Salisbury Court; Throgmorton Street; Cloth Fair; Finsbury Circus - at Moorgate; Creechurch Lane and the east half of Fann Street.

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