A MULTI-MILLION pound cycle lane - which was branded a "death trap" - has scooped a sixth award in less than a year.

Brighton and Hove City Council was named winner of the Excellence in Cycling and Walking category at the National Transport Awards last week for the Lewes Road scheme.

It comes barely a month after the authority won Best Cycle Network Infrastructure Award at the Cycle Planning Awards ceremony for linking up Brighton city centre with destinations along Lewes Road for cyclists. It marks the sixth the scheme has won since it was introduced by the Green-led council with funding by the Government.

The £6.4 million project saw nearly three miles of dual carriageway changed into a single carriageway with a new bus lane and widened cycle lane. Fourteen bus stops and the traffic lights were also revamped.

The network of cycle paths now connects central Brighton to the universities, the American Express Community Stadium and Stanmer Park, as well as residential areas.

But in December part of the new cycle lane around the Vogue Gyratory was labelled "insane" and a "death trap" after three cyclists came off their bikes within five minutes, just days after it had opened.

Two people were taken to hospital after they fell off their bikes at the new Vogue Gyratory cycle lane in Lewes Road, Brighton because it had a disguised kerb that caused them all to crash.

In June this year John Streeter, of Brighton and Hove Streamline Taxis, said: “If you are asking me as a taxi driver, then the system works better for us than for motorists.

“But if you are asking me as a Brightonian and a driver for almost 50 years, then I would say it’s an absolute nightmare.

“There is something fundamentally wrong and we need to look again at the whole system.”

Brighton Kemptown MP Simon Kirby said there were “numerous safety issues” caused by the changes including motorists crossing cycle and bus lanes to enter the road from junctions.

Last month councillor Pete West, the council's Green spokesman on transport, said the fifth award made him "delighted and incredibly proud" that the "innovative" scheme was "recognised by so many transport experts as an example of excellence in design and delivery".

He added: “It really has made cycling between the city centre and neighbourhoods along this route so much safer and more enjoyable, opening up this option for thousands more people.”