Efforts to complete walking and cycling 'missing links' across a Somerset town have received a welcome boost from a local group.

The Frome's Missing Links project aims to deliver new multi-user paths across Frome to provide a better connection between the town and the neighbouring settlements.

The charity recently celebrates the reopening of the upgraded section between Great Elm and Hapsford to the north-west of the town, which connects up with the Collier's Way cycle route to Radstock (part of National Cycle Network route 24).

The organisation is now turning its attention to progressing the remaining links, with a generous £8,500 being donated at its AGM by the Frome Community Bike Project (FCBP).

FCBP, which is based near the town's railway station, aims to "make cycling more accessible to all" through workshops, refurbishing and hiring out bikes and supporting infrastructure improvements by donating a share of its profits.

Of the £8,500 which has been formally donated, £7,000 came from a grant secured in April, with the remaining £1,500 being donated via Crowdfunder.

Ruth Knagg, a Frome's Missing Links trustee, said: "Our trustee group were astonished to be told how much the Bike Project was donating.

"We thought that they would only be able to cover their own operating costs for a good few years before they would be in a position to donate profits.

"It's utterly marvellous, because we have an ongoing need to raise funds to complete remaining missing sections of off-road cycle paths which will make both riding and walking around Frome much safer and more fun. Thank you so much to everyone involved at FCBP."

FCBP director Emma Parker added; "We are absolutely overjoyed to be able to make this donation to Frome's Missing Links.

"Our volunteers have worked incredibly hard to make FCBP a success and the support of the community has been amazing.

"We're looking forward to another successful year and have lots of plans to continue supporting and encouraging cycling in Frome."

Following the crowd-funded resurfacing of the Great Elm section (i.e. phase two of the northern route), Frome's Missing Links members are turning their attention to the two outstanding sections – a northern path which will run from Elliots Lane to the railway line and take cycle traffic away from the busy A362, and a southern link from the Edmund Park housing estate under the railway line, which will link up the NCN route 24 towards Longleat.

Chairman Richard Ackroyd stated in late-April: "With the northern link, there are plans lodged with Network Rail, which is the main landowner, and discussions are ongoing.

"That will require a lot of funding because it involves three bridges and a tunnel – it sound complicated, but we believe it's doable.

"The route to the south of Frome is slightly less complicated – there are two landowners involved, and part of that route is already built. So the next stage for me is to go and talk to Network Rail and the other landowner.

"If I was a betting man, which I'm not, I would say you're more likely to see the southern link done before this last northern section."

Fellow Frome's Missing Link member Helen Johnstone said there was no specific project to which the FCBP project had been allocated, but different ideas were currently being explored following the AGM.

She said: "We don't have specific plans for the money at the moment. We discussed how to go forward with our members at our recent AGM and a number of ideas were raised, including getting better signage to find the route providing information about the route and its connections.

"We are also hoping there is some potential to create a multi-user path under the Frome bypass (and railway line) at fairly low cost, so that people will no longer have to try to try to cross the busy and fast A361 at Feltham Lane, in order to get out to the lanes towards Longleat."