I WAS pleased to read in the Bury Times, December 3, about the recent crackdown on pavement cyclists.

However it has left me somewhat confused by the messages that the police and Bury Council are sending out.

On the one hand we have the local police who refused to take any action against the cars parked in the cycle lane on Manchester Road virtually opposite the town hall, despite numerous complaints.

Then we have Bury Council who probably place nearly 50 per cent of their cycle lanes on the pavement and then place barriers across them to make sure you cannot ride on them.

What is the message that the police are hoping to achieve; “don’t ride on the pavement or the road”, “don’t ride your bike at all”, “we don’t want you in Bury”?

The most productive thing the police can do is look around the country for best practice and adapt or adopt it for this area e.g. a speeding fine in some areas will result in the driver being given a choice of a speed awareness course or a fine. Applying this to the cyclists they could pay the fine or go on a cycle training scheme and the ‘Bikeability tests’.

Holland gets mentioned as the Utopia of cycling but their cycle lanes are just that — lanes for cycling on — pedestrians have their own provisions because they and cyclists don’t mix.

I am also yet to be convinced that on-road cycle lanes offer any benefit to cyclists at all. As I ride to work I get pasted by cars and buses but I only ever see a handful of cyclists. If Bury Council’s reason for having these lanes is to encourage more cycling then it has failed.

It is time for a rethink.

Nigel Hood, Scobell Street, Tottington