THE council is planning to spend vast sums of money changing the shape of the Plain and cycle lanes in general throughout our city.

I’m sure many would agree with me that the money would be better spent, firstly on the bad condition of many of our roads, especially the main arteries leading into our city. There are still many potholes which have not been attended to. These affect everyone who uses the roads, whether it be the motorists who pay dearly through road tax etc, or the thousands of cyclists who don’t pay one penny towards any alterations that will be for their benefit.

If, as reported, these changes are to help protect the cyclists on our busy roads, then they should start themselves by wearing helmets, having high visibility clothing and most importantly, lights on their cycles.

It seems that only on occasions do the police have a purge in Queen Street, or other areas, when they catch many who don’t obey the rule of law. Sadly on many occasions it’s overlooked.

Everything in life today is taxed one way or another, yet still the cyclists don’t put a penny into the coffers to use the roads. I’m sure many don’t know what the Highway Code is.

Oxford is, without doubt, one of the busiest cities in the country for cyclists and to get preferential treatment over the taxpaying motorist seems grossly unfair under present conditions when there are cutbacks in services throughout the city.

It’s unfair to condemn all cyclists in our city because some are very safety-conscious but they are a small minority.

The council is also planning to widen the cycle lanes. This is another bad idea because many of the roads on bus routes are already not wide enough and to be fair to bus drivers they already have enough to contend with, without the extra hazards that this would cause.

Not enough thought goes into these decisions before action is taken.

COLIN SMITH, George Moore Close, Oxford