Delighted Velo was cancelled

Divine intervention. The god of common sense has overcome the god of selfishness and I, for one, was not trapped in my home for the best part of the day on Sunday by a perverse decision by a few West Sussex officials backed by a few councillors of its cabinet which was totally undemocratic and arrogantly sprung on a large section of us with absolutely no consultation.

Amongst other things this fiasco has revealed one of the flaws of party politics and cabinet government applied to local government, as expressed by Garry Cummings in his letter (WSCT September 20th).

Professional British cyclists have achieved great success over recent years with the laudable result of a huge increase in the popularity of the sport.

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This has led to any criticism of the activity being regarded as the equivalent of a loud burp in the middle of a vicar’s sermon and to many this has become some sort of sacred cow.

The majority of cyclists are as law abiding and polite as the next person. However there remains a significant minority of reckless boorish cyclists who feel they have undisputed right of passage over anyone getting in their way as they embark on their personal time trials even where they are not permitted to ride or when they are in a shared space and thoughtlessly block the roads and run traffic lights as they please.

For this reason alone I am delighted that Velo South was cancelled and us ordinary folk were free to go about their business including other charity events and small businesses.

For the record, I ride a bike for pleasure.

Barry Laflin

Woodfield, Southwater