A £32 million bid to improve the transport system in Brighton and Hove has been submitted to the Government.

If the bid is successful, Brighton and Hove Council plans to use the money to double the number of cyclists in the towns by 2002.

It also aims to increase the number of people using buses and trains by five per cent to reduce traffic levels and cut road accidents.

Brighton and Hove Policy and Resources Committee will be asked to approve details of the bid at a meeting tomorrow.

The plans also include £3.75 million on developing new park and ride schemes, although a site for them has not been specified.

More than £1 million will be spent on improving access to bus stops while spending on improving cycle routes tops £1.5 million.

This includes providing new cycle routes from Hove to Hangleton, from Old Shoreham Road to the bypass and from Falmer to Rottingdean.

Another £1 million will be spent on providing new pedestrian crossings in the town.

Traffic calming schemes will cost more than £3 million. They include projects for Rottingdean, Poets Corner, West Hill, Woodland Drive and other locations yet to be decided.

More than £1.5 million will be spent on a road safety programme including junction improvements, speed cameras and pedestrian refuges.

One of the biggest sums, £9 million, will go on maintaining roads and bridges.

Improvements on main roads such as the A23 from the bypass to Preston Circus, the A259 coast road, Lewes Road and Church Road in Hove will cost more than £2 million.

Environment director Alan McCarthy said the council had done well with transport funding so far and remained optimistic.

But he warned: "Despite increases in the availability of Government funds for transport, the bid may not be accepted in full."

Chris Todd, of Friends of the Earth, warned the likely site for any park and ride scheme would be Waterhall, a greenfield site on the outskirts of Brighton.

He said: "We would welcome most of the plan but park and ride is a big anomaly.

"It actually encourages more car use by giving drivers extra spaces on top of those in the town centre.

"People will drive all the distance to the outskirts and then get a bus in. That doesn't help public transport or the environment.

"Park and ride also undermines existing bus and train services by charging cheaper fares. People will drive a short distance to the car parks before getting the coaches into town."

Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper said he would lobby the Government to accept the bid if approved by the council.

He said: "It sounds like the sort of thing that Brighton and Hove needs. We want to make the area more attractive to visitors while improving the environment, safety and the speed of transport.

"This is an issue on which my constituents have expressed a lot of concern. If we can help alleviate problems with extra money it will be a very good thing indeed."

Ian Davey, a campaigner for the cyclists' campaign group Bricycles, said: "We welcome anything which would improve the situation.

"We need to make the town centre safer and provide premier routes in and out of Brighton and Hove.

"More people would use bicycles if they felt safer on the roads."