Cllr Peter Hulbert, who is registered blind, has campaigned for a light-controlled crossing point for more than a year and got the support of town MP Richard Spring.

Now Suffolk County Council has agreed to put in a new crossing and is currently deciding what type to instal.

Cllr Hulbert said he was delighted. "I am so pleased they have at last decided to do it because we do really need it," he said. "The new leisure centre will be opening soon, it looks as though the hospital will be expanded and the amount of traffic using Exning Road is increasing."

He said the existing crossing near St Philips Road was the Belisha-type, which relied on motorists stopping to let pedestrians cross and was the only one before the light controlled crossing in Fred Archer Way.

Cllr Hulbert was initially told spending on crossings had to be limited to areas where there had been several injury accidents over a three-year period but after he approached Newmarket county councillor Lisa Chambers he was informed funding was available this year to provide improved pedestrian crossing facilities along Exning Road.

Suffolk County Council has also confirmed it is to spend £80,000 extending Newmarket's Exning Road cycle track into the heart of the town.

Work will start this autumn on the new route from Laureate School to Rowley Drive and will include two new cycle crossings.

Cyclists will be able to use the full width of the existing footpath, parts of which will be widened.

Plans showing the line of the route can be seen at the Memorial Hall in Newmarket, between 9am and 2pm, Monday to Friday.