Letters to the editor:- "On your bike!"

"AS a society, we have rightly adopted a harm reduction culture in which we seek to persuade people by law and reason to safeguard their health. Changes in the law have brought about restrictions on smoking and the forthcoming crackdown on alcohol will similarly save many lives. Healthy eating promotion is also playing its part (although the legal route may yet be needed in this respect). And Police will stop and prosecute any motorist not wearing a seatbelt or motorcyclist without helmet. Yet, when it comes to pedal cyclists, little is done to enforce existing safety legislation. Whereas cycle helmets are not a legal requirement, adequate nocturnal front and rear lighting is; as well as obeying traffic signals whilst mounted. Yet, how often does one see cyclists sailing through red traffic lights;if one actually sees them at night without lights? Is the only reason that police never seem to enforce cycling law a Clarksonesque view that cyclists form the natural prey of the 4 wheeled avatar and are a species not worth saving? Or is there some other agenda?" John Eoin Douglas.

Access system needs to be modernised, says CLA in hard-hitting report

THE Country Land and Business Association (CLA) who have a 36,000 strong membership have published:- "The Right Way Forward ~ The CLA’s common sense approach to access in the countryside."

The report  was published on 23 February 2012 and calls for a shake-up of the access and public rights of way system. The CLA report says the system must be improved in a way that boosts efficiency and gets better value for money.

CLA North Regional Director Dorothy Fairburn said:- "The public rights of way system in England is governed by a failing bureaucratic and legislative system which is long-winded, expensive and completely incomprehensible to most people. Even to call rights of way a ‘system’ suggests an order and logic not apparent in reality. Many thousands of pounds of public money can be spent pursuing claims for paths which have not been used for centuries while present day users struggle along overgrown paths because there is not enough money for maintenance. This cannot be right. We should look at the public access we already have in the North West and determine where it needs to be improved for the benefit of the majority. We should consider where people actually want to go, and their safety. If that means opening new paths or cycle ways, and closing those now historic and redundant, then that is good use of public money. It can take many years to process a rights of way claim, resulting in enormous cost and ongoing uncertainty for all. Even once fought and won, cases can be reopened and examined all over again; hardly a sensible use of increasingly scarce resources. Although local authorities have seen their budgets cut, the grand plan for an all-England coastal path, complete with ‘spreading room’, remains a key objective of Natural England."  

Email your views and thoughts on this to our newsroom via:- news24@southportreporter.com. For more information about the CLA, visit:- cla.org.uk.