We share same aim to ban pavement cycling
I FEEL I must respond to the letter from Fred Foster (Aug 11) about cycling on pavements, and his undeservedly sarcastic comments about Coventry Older Voices (COV). I found these surprising as we share the same aim.
COV have been pressing the council for about 18 months to do something about the dangerous use of bicycles and skateboards in pedestrian areas throughout the city. Members of COV have had several meetings with councillors and council officers to put our case.
We also delivered a written submission to support proposals for a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which would have banned the use of bicycles and skateboards in the city centre at certain times. We held two (well attended) public meetings to promote our cause, which was featured in the local media. We report on our campaign on coventryoldervoices.org and in our newsletter, which has a circulation of 2,000 every two months.
Regrettably, the PSPO was ‘watered down’, and the ban we had hoped for was diluted to a request for those acting irresponsibly to dismount. We were told this was because of a lack of evidence of a danger to the public.
The PSPO will be reviewed in just under a year, so COV are attempting to gather evidence that we can present to the review, to support our call for a ban. We are doing this by asking members of the public who are involved in or witness incidents involving bicycles or skateboards to report them, using forms we provide. We think that this is a sensible way to provide convincing evidence of the need for action. We cannot change the regulations ourselves – we can only attempt to persuade the council to do so.
We would be happy to consider additional tactics to achieve our aims, and would welcome constructive suggestions from those who have any to make. Phil Lovett Member of Coventry Older Voices Coventry
Advice on gas hikes makes me fume
THE reaction from Tory politicians whenever British Gas massively hikes its tariffs is priceless.
They take to the airwaves to urge hard-hit customers to embrace capitalism by playing the markets, switching provider, and hitting the exploiters where it hurts.
Funny how that kind of advice was never in brochures when Thatcher privitised gas in 1986, instead urging us “if you see Sid, tell him”. There was no warning that flogging off a publicly owned utility was just a scam to make city investors richer, or that one day the company would be held in such contempt. Andy McDonald Tile Hill
Letter had no name
DO we now have a phantom contributor to the letters page of the Coventry Telegraph?
The letter ‘Feast of opinions on allowances’ (Aug 22) shows no accreditation or salutation.
Mind you, I agree with every comment in their letter, so perhaps it could have been me? Fred Foster Radford (Good spot, Mr Foster – the letter was in fact sent in by Matthew Batson of Coundon. Apologies for this production error).