FOLLOWING your article re cycle paths in the Evening Advertiser of February 27 and my letter which you published in the Evening Advertiser of March 6, there have been a number of other letters, of which the latest is from a Mr Heath of Clarke Drive, Shaw, who seems to have got the wrong end of the stick.

May I make my position regarding this matter absolutely clear. I am not opposed to cyclists or cycle paths. I am however, concerned at the expenditure in the provision of a facility that seems to be grossly underused.

Between 2000 and 2002 nearly £1.5 million was spent on cycle paths by Swindon Borough Council as the agent for central government. This figure takes no account of money spent by developers on cycle paths at SBC's request, which is effectively paid for by house purchasers in the new developments.

SBC Transport department endeavours to justify this expenditure on the basis of 'counts' along the 'rail bridge screen line'. When one investigates what is meant by the 'rail bridge screen line', one discovers that this refers to some nine locations where cyclists can cross over or under the railway. Eight of these crossing locations are roadways over or under the railway and only one could reasonably be termed a cycle path.

The Evening Advertiser's count on the cycle track under the railway to Station Road of 219 cyclists in five hours is an infinitely more valid indication of cycle path usage than the figures quoted by the council in relation to the 'rail bridge screen line'.

At the same time however, there is 'bed blocking' (delayed discharges) at GWH to the extent of some 10 to 20 beds daily because there is inadequate capacity in Swindon's private sector residential/nursing homes, due in no small measure to the niggardly fees paid by SBC over the past few years, yet over 3000 patients are awaiting admission to GWH.

There are currently 36 elderly people waiting for community care placements because the borough cannot afford to provide them due to a projected overspend of £225,000 on the community care budget.

The question that I would pose is whether the provision of cycle paths is really more important than patient care, often of elderly patients. It maybe that as a doctor I see things from a slightly different point of view to the generality of people, but I am quite clear that my priorities put patient care before cycle paths.

C O Lister

Whitworth Road

Rodbourne Cheney, Swindon

The situation is therefore, that about £1.5 million has already been spent on cycle paths and a further £876,000 is proposed to be spent on more cycle paths, not to mention the money being spent by developers on the provision of even more cycle paths, at the council's insistence.

It should be noted that there are no illnesses requiring hospital admission that improve with waiting.

Currently an 'emergency only' scheme is in operation, and unless there is a change in the financial situation, this is likely to remain the situation for the next 12 months.

The relationship between the counts of cyclists along the 'rail bridge screen line' (the council's nomenclature) and the number of cyclists using the many miles of cycle paths in the borough is purely conjectural, and

I should be most interested to know what your readers think.