Cycling on a footway alongside the carriageway in towns is something that we can all agree has become a serious problem.

Cyclists who learn to cycle properly on the road find it quicker and safer than dashing along the pavement, crossing side roads and junctions, and scattering angry pedestrians.

As far as I know Northamptonshire Police never prosecute footway cyclists and the highway authority encourages the bad habit by painting white bicycles on paths to make it legal.

Cycling in parks is illegal in Northampton because of a by-law.

It is seldom unsafe unless there is a steep gradient.

Cycling is now officially encouraged on The Racecourse.

That is an ideal place for children and other beginners to learn to ride their bikes and provides several useful routes in to town.

Cycling in wide pedestrian areas such as Abington Street only presents a problem at busy times and when cyclists ride irresponsibly fast.

At 7am, Abington Street is an important route for cyclists going to work.

After the shops close there are again few pedestrians and there is no conceivable reason why cyclists should not use it.

If the rules were made more rational, rather than a 24/7 ban motivated by prejudice against cyclists, they might be better respected.

It seems bad policy for the police to mount a big operation in Abington Street until there is a serious review of the real issues involved and the Traffic Regulation Orders amended accordingly.
John Cutler,
Local representative,
CTC, the national cyclists' organisation.

Control centre is an improvement
We would like to set the record straight about claims that a sat nav error delayed two ambulances.

Firstly, the reporter misled us.

We were told the information came from a member of the public.

The article quotes a member of staff.

This meant that we only had half the story.

Secondly, the new team of control operators have been given familiarisation training in Northamptonshire.

This included spending time in the Deanshanger control centre and on the road with ambulance crews with "handover periods" of up to 10 months.

We made this clear in an earlier release to your newspaper.

Thirdly, we know that local names are used to describe a location and that's why as a matter of standard procedure, all 999 callers are asked to provide the full address.

The likelihood of a similar problem arising in future is greatly reduced because as from the August 27, all emergency calls in Northamptonshire have been handled at a new, state-of-the-art ambulance control in Nottingham where we have more staff handling calls for Northamptonshire.

We are confident these new developments will result in further improvements in patient care.
Chris Gaskill,
General Manager, Northamptonshire Division, East Midlands Ambulance Service.
Editor's footnote: EMAS was made aware of the nature of the complaint, regardless of whether it was a member of the public or a member of staff, and as such were given the opportunity to respond fully.

Car sales should be off the road
Dare I suggest that making restricted time parking bays in places popular with those wanting to sell cars on the roadside will not only cost all of us money, it will penalise the general public as well.

How will they be able to park legally near their homes, or where will their visitors park?

Marking bays and putting up road signs to warn the public of possible infringement will cost how much? Has anyone thought about it?

Better, I suggest, would be to make roadside sales punishable by fine and threat of towing away the same day.

If the vehicle is not claimed within three days, the money raised from recycling of metal and the fines could fund the cost of the towaway and the general public could continue to park without penalty.

If people want to sell their vehicles, they should do it from their own drive and not involve others in their desire to part with unwanted cars and vans.
Marian Thomas,
Church Way, Weston Favell, Northampton.

Any green taxes must be neutral
I was interested in reading your article about the Tax Payers Alliance suggesting that people in Northampton pay out an unnecessary £350 in "Green Taxes" each year (Chronicle & Echo, August 28).

Of course the Tax Payers Alliance has an agenda about reducing taxes overall and discrediting green taxes as unnecessary suits their agenda.

Yet actually the Labour Government has made a big mistake by simply putting up tax or duties without actually explaining how the extra tax burden relates to the environmental cost of that activity.

How typical of an arrogant and out-of-touch Government.

Liberal Democrats have always held to the principle of "no taxation without explanation".

Our Green Tax Switch' would reduce the basic rate of income tax by 4p but we would increase taxation on activity that damages the environment, but increasing it in proportion to the damage the activity does.

So taxing aircraft by the C02 emissions they make, not by the number of passengers, increasing vehicle exercise duty based on the carbon emissions a vehicle makes.

Overall Liberal Democrats believe that green taxes should be revenue-neutral.

They should not be treated as a wheeze to squeeze ever more money out of the British people, but should instead be designed to encourage green behaviour, and to cut the taxes of the most needy.

Finally I was not surprised on a cursory look at the Tax Payer Alliance website to see that many of its members and contributors have strong links to the Conservative Party.

This is the party that has now abandoned green taxes yet continues to proclaim "Voting Blue Go Green" without offering any definitive policies.

But slogans and spin don't add up to a sound environment policy and the Conservative Party policy seems to be to offer nothing and hope they get into power by being less awful than Labour.
Andrew Simpson,
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Northampton North Constituency.

Dog show thanks
I read with interest your report that there had recently been a dog show held on Northampton Market Square.

I would like to congratulate Jane Spence for being the driving force behind this.

What a great concept for bringing families back into the town centre.

I sincerely hope that other people will be inspired by this initiative and that other events are organised to increase variety.

We are all grateful to those who add to the quality of life in the town centre .
Joe Castello,
Earl Street, Northampton.