Children and parents believe a new bicycle shelter at a primary school will encourage more pupils to cycle to school.

New Marston Primary School, in Copse Lane, Marston, Oxford, opened its new and much needed £20,000 bicycle shelter for the first time on Thursday.

It is hoped the new shelter will encourage more children to travel to school on their bicycle as it will provide a safe place for them to be kept during the day.

Judy Kelly, transport planner for the travel plans team at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "The main barrier that existed at the school before was that parents were concerned about the safety of their children's bikes. There was a covered shelter that already existed on the site, but there were no rails for them to lock their bikes to - and parents and pupils were concerned about the bikes being stolen."

The Better Ways To School Project has funded the new shelter, which comes complete with rails for the children to lock their bicycle to and a lockable gate at the entrance.

Parent governor Verity Lawson said: "I think it's fantastic because the facilities we had before were really poor. It's really nice for the kids to have something they can actually use."

The decision was taken to build the new shelter after a survey carried out by the county council revealed that 47 per cent of the school's pupils would cycle to school if a new shelter was provided.

Miss Kelly said: "Our aim is to get kids out of cars and on to their bikes.

"Figures show that 91 per cent of the school's pupils live within cycling or walking distance of the school.

"By putting the shelter next to the entrance hopefully we'll be able to bring about behavioural change.

"Not just for the children, but for the parents as well."

It is also hoped that more children cycling to school will mean fewer cars on the roads.

Bryony Thomas, whose son attends the school, said: "The less people bringing their cars, the better.

"We've got a real problem with parking round here due to parking restrictions and hopefully this will help."

Children from the school were pleased with the new shelter and one pupil said he had brought his bicycle to school for the first time because of it.

Dave Burroughs, aged eight, said: "This is the first time I've come to school on my bike.

"More people rode to school today because their bikes would be safe."