Brighton and Hove city council appears determined to abolish its cycle highway despite the fact that demolition will cost £1.1m.

Mary Mears, council leader, said the decision to remove the cycle lane which connects South Downs national park with Hove's seafront was a response to "concerns" from residents and users. She said: "We remain committed to the safety of the cycling fraternity. Unlike some other cycle lanes in the city, the Grand Avenue/Drive scheme is not well used or appreciated. Furthermore its removal will improve traffic flow along the coast road from Shoreham Harbour and across the city."

We're talking about rather more than a simple cycle lane. It is a European-style "cycle freeway", for the most part segregated from traffic by being set into the pavement behind the on-street parking. It was completed in 2008 as the centrepiece of Brighton and Hove's successful bid to become a Cycle Demonstration Town, with £3m in government funding provided by Cycling England in the glory days of 2005. It is part of the infrastructure that won the Transport Authority of the Year award only last year, when the council was commended for cycling improvements that saw cycling in the city increase by 27% since 2006.

The route runs for around 2.5 miles, southwards from Downs access point at Dyke Railway Trail, to the sea via Hove station. The segregated cycle freeway section runs for about a mile along Grand Avenue and The Drive, this last section a wide double-lane carriage way lined by classic Palladian-style mansion blocks until finally opening out on to Hove Lawns beneath a statue of Queen Victoria.

There has been a nationwide chorus of protest, and anger from the sustainable transport community. Since the Conservatives gained control of the council in 2007, it has cancelled successive components of the city's plans for transport improvements, most notably the Old Shoreham Road scheme which was to have provided an east-west segregated cycle freeway linking the centres of Brighton, Hove and Portslade, and Marine Parade which was to have filled in the "missing link" in the national cycle route along the seafront.

On Saturday a group of cyclists braved rainy weather to cycle to the council offices to protest against the planned closure and there is a petition to reverse the plans. At the protest I met Stuart Croucher, who helped plan the cycle freeway as transport planning manager for Brighton and Hove in 2005.

Croucher said: "As a citizen of Brighton and Hove I feel deeply angry. It feels as if progress, not just in transport, but also in many other ways, is coming to a halt. Now it's going into reverse."

Croucher explained that segregated cycle lanes were key to getting lots of people cycling. He said the commonest reason given for not cycling is that people don't feel safe cycling in traffic. He also explained the cancellation of other components of the Cycle Demonstration Town scheme had rendered the cycle freeway incomplete. He lives in the area and says he cannot take his seven-year-old daughter cycling in traffic. The original plans envisaged thousands of school children cycling to school.

Alex Phillips, a Green party councillor whose ward includes a section of the cycle route said: "At a time of cuts to frontline services, leaving vulnerable people to fend for themselves, it's not right that money is spent to get rid of this important and well-used cycle lane." Budget proposals that include plans to abolish the route will come before the council on 3 March.

Aside from anger, there is an air of puzzlement. Why would the administration want to destroy cycle lanes that run along a wide carriageway through a residential area?

I asked whether the council intended to press ahead with the closure, despite the protests. A council press officer told me she had been instructed to refer queries to the council leader. "It is a political matter," she said.

Mears also dismissed concerns that the council should repay grants if plans to demolish cycle lanes go ahead. She said: "This quango is about to be abolished so it is not an issue."

• Russell Honeyman is a freelance writer and green activist