SIR: As a life-long cyclist I wish I could support the Bury Councillors' message 'Get On Your Bikes'. But unfortunately I cannot. My message to anyone who has a bicycle in the shed is leave it there, otherwise your life is on the line.

The accident rate for cyclists on the roads of Bury is twice the national average and although Bury Metro's attempts to provide a safe cycle network has to be commended, because of their limited resources plus objections from local residents and ill informed councillors, the result is anything but safe.

Not until the project has the full support of the police and the government; not until drivers are educated enough to realise that cyclists are helping to reduce the ever increasing problem of congestion and also the inevitable grid lock, which they, the drivers, are contributing to; not until drivers realise that cyclists are actually making room for those who can't or won't manage without their cars and give them the respect they deserve for travelling under such difficult and vulnerable circumstances, instead of directing their anger and frustrations at them for the problems, the very problems which they themselves create due to their impatience and inability to observe the law; only then will cyclists be relatively safe from the very serious threat to their lives.

So before you get that bicycle out of the shed, I suggest you contact your MP and demand that the National Cycle Strategy receives more funding and commitment from the government.

Allan Ramsay, Waterlane Street, Radcliffe

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.