MAY I be allowed to comment on the article about cycle paths in your February 27 edition.

The total expenditure on cycle paths funded by Central Government for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 was £1,449,000. The schemes which you mention in your letter are in addition to this figure. While this money does not come out of the rates, it does come out of taxpayers money (whether it is Income Tax, VAT or any other form of taxation).

It should be noted that the sums of money referred to above are in relation to Swindon, but Swindon is by no means unique in this matter, other towns and cities will have proportionally similar amounts of taxpayers' money being spent on similar schemes, so that the total cost will amount to many millions.

I am in no position to question the need for cycle paths nationally, but here in Swindon, judging from the use made of existing cycle paths, there would seem to be no justification for this sort of expenditure.

The figures quoted in your paper in relation to the use made of the cycle path crossing under the rail bridge off Station Road are really very revealing. The counts were made during a 12-hour period in November it seems, and in 1990, 3,874 cyclists were counted. This figure dropped to 2,336 in 1997 and then increased to 3,242 in 2001. Yet in your own 'straw poll' over a five hour period between 8.30am and 2.30pm on February 26 this year, only 219 cyclists were counted (of whom 40 were postmen or postwomen). To achieve the 2001 levels of use another 3000 cyclists would have needed to use this cycle path either before 8.30am that day or after 2.30pm, which seems a highly unlikely sate of affairs.

Your own 'straw poll' would seem to reveal a much truer picture (219 cyclists in five hours, about three cyclists every four minutes).

It is, I think, noteworthy that the location used for the counts should be amongst the busiest cycle routes in the town. How many cyclists, I wonder, use the new cycle path along Oxford Road or across The Lawns?

I fear that Coun Pajak's assessment is just pie in the sky. In the town centre most people will be walking, both now and in the future, while they will be travelling to the town centre either by public transport or motor car.

C O Lister

Abbey Meads Ward

Borough Councillor