A cycling campaigner has urged Waltham Forest Council to bid to become one of the Mayor of London’s ‘mini-Holland’ cycling havens.

Boris Johnson announced the scheme yesterday, which invites greater London boroughs to bid for high investment available for up to three of the boroughs to make them cycle-friendly.

And Simon Munk, of the Waltham Forest Cycle Campaign, said he believes measures implemented by the local authority last year means it stands a great chance of bidding successfully for a spot.

The council passed a three-year plan last April to adopt a 20mph speed limit on all residential roads as well as allowing cyclists to travel both ways on one-way streets and tackling dangerous roads.

He said: “The council is already out in front. They were one of the first to back the London Cycling Campaign’s Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling campaign and they’re off to a great start.

“They are listening much better to what cyclists are saying to them and we will start to see some real positive changes.

“That puts them in a really good place to bid to become one of the mini-Hollands.”

The funding offer is just one part of Mr Johnson’s plans for London over the next seven years.

A ‘Crossrail for cyclists’ reaching from the western suburbs to Canary Wharf and Barking will be at the heart of the mayor’s proposals to make London the city of the bicycle, and he also plans to establish a new series of bike routes throughout London to mirror the Tube and road networks.

They will be a mix of direct superhighways for experienced cyclists and Quietways using pleasant, less busy side streets.

Mr Munk welcomed the strategy, hailing it a “complete shock” for the extent of its ambition.

He added: “The measures are massive steps in the right direction. They’re the most exciting and visionary thing for cycling in the UK to have happened in 80 years.

“A big problem in getting people to cycle is if you live at A and work at B  there have not been routes you can use to get between them easily.

“We think this will change that and make it safer, to encourage the 98 per cent of people who don’t cycle to use a bike.”

The ‘Crossrail’ bike project would be the longest urban cycle route in Europe, TfL claims, and would follow existing tracks along the A40 before crossing a new bike and pedestrian bridge at White City over the West Cross route and railway line.

It would then join a two-way cycle track along the Westway flyover before crossing Hyde Park and linking into a bike ‘superhighway’ from Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf and Barking.

The mayor and TfL claim the journey would often be as quick or quicker than taking the train or going by car.

TfL also wants to get more ethnic minorities, women and older people cycling by 2020, when they hope the two different kinds of routes will be well used.

The east to west cycle superhighway will be built by 2016, according to the Mayor.

The Guardian has approached the council for comment on whether it intends to bid for ‘mini-Holland’ funding.