The following letter was published in the Echo this week:

WITH regard to the recent reports and letters regarding cycle paths in the borough, I agree with the need for additional cycling facilities, but if the council is going to go ahead with new plans please do it in an organised and co-ordinated manner.

I cycled in Netherlands for two years, every cycle path is painted the same red/brown colour with clear cycle symbols, all paths are connected and numbered and route maps can be purchased.

Southend has a mess of different bits that have been tacked on to new road upgrades, nothing is co-ordinated, no two bits of path are the same colour, design or marked.

A fortune has been spent on road works from Kent Elms Corner to Cuckoo corner but nothing was spent on continuous cycle paths.

The badly maintained cycle path that runs from London to Kent Elms stops in exactly the same place where the builders left it in 1926, progress?

The new London Road venture beggars belief, they started a bit by Nazareth House years ago and what a dog’s breakfast that is.

If this scheme is going to work, plan it properly, go to Netherlands and see how experts have done it.

Roger Webster

Leigh