BRITAIN'S Olympic-inspired love of cycling has encouraged the owners of a water park near Bridgwater to build a velodrome.

Steve and Julia Cox, who run Middlemoor Waterpark in Woolavington, want to fill in half of its 20-acre lake to build a 500-metre oval cycling arena, and a 2km road track.

There are also plans to build a learn-to-ride road for primary school children, with realistic road markings such as zebra crossings.

The scheme was given the go-ahead by Sedgemoor planners over a year ago, but the Environment Agency permits needed to fill in the lake are only now being finalised.

Steve told the Mercury: “We were told it would take six to eight weeks and it's taken 15 months.

“We're now waiting for the final piece of paper to be signed off, which could be any day now.

“There are no more major hurdles.”

The exploits of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton at the Olympic Games in London may have captured the imagination of a nation, but it was Britain's cycling success four years earlier at Beijing that persuaded Steve to change course at the water park.

He said: “People's habits are changing.

“The days of jet skiing have died.

“It's a case of redeveloping the water park into something else and we didn't have a bad set of results at the Olympics, and a few people seem to be cycling!”

The water side of things won't be totally gone, as there will be a new area devoted to cable wakeboarding.

The primary aim, however, is to turn the park into a triathlon centre.

And if Steve needs anywhere to turn for advice, his family would be a good place to start.

His brother-in-law, Mark, is an Iron Man, and his sister Sarah, is a former world champion triathlete.

Work on developing the park could take 12-24 months.