Sir – Barbara Raw (Letters, January 29) asked if Cyclox would be including Castle Mill Stream Walk as a cycle route on its cycle map. The map will be based on data held by opencyclemap.org, which anyone can edit, as long as they abide by some basic rules (don’t copy other maps and, if in doubt, map what’s on the ground).
The more people fine-tuning what is already there, the better. In the case of Castle Mill Stream Walk, it’s a fairly narrow tarmaced footpath with barriers which discourage cycling.
In deference to Barbara Raw, I think I’d probably regard cycle usage of it to be disputed, though since there aren’t any no-cycling signs, it is probably not actually an offence to cycle along it.
It is most likely to end up being shown as a footpath.
As someone who occasionally cycles through St Ebbe’s, I would observe that a lot of small fences and obstructions have gone up in recent years to discourage cyclists.
Perhaps if a similar level of effort were applied to creating one good route for cyclists from the old gasworks bridge to Trinity Street then they wouldn't use the inappropriate ones.
Richard Mann, West Oxford
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