Letter: What a way to celebrate the Tour de France one year on

The popularity of particular cycle routes is self selecting - if a lot of people use a specific path, it must be because it provides a useful link.

All four paths near Tewit Well have always been useful ‘unofficial’ cycle routes and, due to where they go, they always will be.

If they need widening slightly to become official shared use paths, then the council should consult on the matter. Just painting No Cycling on them is avoiding the issue.

Interestingly, W Haythornthwaite, in his book Harrogate Story states “...the road from the Prince of Wales to the Tewit Well. This road is now a walk, but because of its ancient status, it may be used by cyclists.”

This path is slightly over two metres wide, that’s a bit wider than the Beryl Burton path, the Starbeck to Bilton railway path and the viaduct to Ripley section of the Nidderdale Greenway.

These are all shared use paths, so there is really no good reason to ban cycling on this Stray path.

In Cambridge nearly all the paths across the parks and commons are shared use (and some are less than two metres wide) and they work fine. Common sense will always override illogical rules.

Richard Myers

St Catherines Road, Harrogate