Dr NICHOLAS BURKITT, of Fore Street, Moretonhampstead, writes:

I would like to raise a couple of points regarding an article that appeared in the MDA (30/01/2015), under the headline of 'Parking ban as cycle race hits town'.

Due to an application by the Mid-Devon Cycle Club, Bovey Tracey Town Council has banned parking in part of Station Road to facilitate the running of a cycle event at the end of March. I would like to know whether anyone from either the cycle club or the town council asked the residents of Station Road as to their opinions on having to move their cars/vehicles over the weekend?

One may ask do the residents' opinions really matter and is there any real need to bother asking them when one wants to hold a cycle event? It's all very well some group wanting to pursue a hobby, but it should not interfere in the lives of other people.

Please hold a cycle event, but do not inconvenience other people with your actions, including an elderly relative who lives in Station Road.

The other point that should be raised is that this cycle event is a 'race'. There can be few hobbies, such as cycling, that are allowed to race through towns and villages without police supervision or roads being cordoned off by them.

While I accept that an event such as the Tour of Britain is a notable and exceptional event, that everyone can respect, a race put on by a local cycle club that inconveniences many local people is too much.

There are many motorbike and car clubs that hold events both in the Dartmoor National Park and around its edges, but I doubt enthusiastic members of these hobbies would be allowed to 'race' through the area. Racing should be done off public roads.

There are already too many people racing through the lanes and over the national park, notably thousands of cyclists each year. By comparison, I see very few motorbikes or car clubs holding races or as they are often phrased, 'time trials', going up to Haytor for instance.

Nor, I should add, have motorbike and car clubs ever requested, to my knowledge, that parking restrictions be put in place. In my opinion, national parks are not the place for any form of racing by cycles, cars or anything else, either on the road or off it.