Recent weeks have seen the rollout of e-bikes in and around the town.

Watford is the first out-of-London town to avail the electric bikes supplied by Beryl apparently..

Yet the e-bike scheme could be so much more effective if there was an infrastructure in place to support riders.

Once again, Herts County Council is to be found not just dragging its feet but digging its heels in holding back work by Watford Council in creating a Covid- secure and healthier neighbourhood.

Where are the cycle routes? Where are the shared cycle/pedestrian signs? Where are the maps of cycle ways?

Save for the high street and the Ebury Way, cycle lanes in Watford are non-existent or at best user-unfriendly.

At Aldenham village, for example, there is a display board overlooking the twee village green featuring a map of the local byways.

Untangling the web of footpaths, permissive paths, bridle - ways, whilst using a key to decipher the various rights of way (which you’ll need to do if your working knowledge of the highways and byways laws is not impeccable), the cycle permitted paths can be decoded.

But then, once back in the saddle, with no cycle sign in sight, that information on the map must be visualised and memorised. Hopeless.

At present, the situation is not so much akin to a ‘canoe without a paddle’ but a boat without a waterway.

Dave Degen

Whippendell Road, Watford