"It's cheap. It's efficient. It's healthy. And if every commuter were to bike to work, Britain's urban transport problems would disappear in a flash." Your editorial "rant" gave us some truth about cycling, but to liken it to the dangers of "jumping off a skyscraper" is nonsense (17/06/04).

Certainly we urgently need to improve the safety of cycling, but let us not forget that it is more dangerous to travel by car than by bicycle, not least because of the speed. By exaggarating the dangers of cycling, the result, whether you intended it or not, is to discourage cycling. You promote cars each week in your aggressively titled supplement, 'Driving Force', but where is your serious campaign to make Cheltenham cycle-friendly?

You lay all the blame on local politicians, but many are trying to promote cycling within limited resources. Yes, they are perhaps too timid, but the blame must also lie with our Labour government. We sorely lack leadership on this issue, indeed far from embarking on a Green transport policy we have seen Labour watch over the transfer of freight from the railways to the roads, plough ever-larger sums of money into road building and encourage more subsidised aviation. These are not the way forward.

There is much we can do to improve the situation. Greens in London for example are working to ensure that ten per cent of all journeys in London are made by bicycle by 2008. There plans include measures to ensure safe and direct routes to schools, shifting twenty per cent of police officers out of patrol cars and onto bikes, reducing 30 mph speed limits to 20 mph, securing bicycle parking in new housing and commercial developments and regular car-free Sundays on main streets.

In the recent elections, Greens increased their votes in Cheltenham. We believe it will not be too long before we will be elected here to show that Green transport policies are the way forward for everyone's benefit.

Keith Bessant, Cheltenham Green Party