SIR – As a cyclist at 75 years old I still like to keep fit, but I do tend to use the many cycle tracks that are laid out throughout the district, rather than the roads.

I was particularly concerned the other day when taking my two grandchildren cycling from south Hatfield to the mill at Mill Green.

We cycled down Lane End; the vegetation on both sides of the track was overgrown. The track from the Oak Hotel to the unversity is a twin track for cycles and pedestrians, but the pedestrain footpath is so overgrown in places that it is invisible and pedestrains are having to walk on the cycle track.

Now we come to the very dangerous part between the university and the Galleria (College Lane).

This section is a shared cycle-come-pedestrian track, the tree branches are hanging so low cyclists are being hit in the face.

I was discussing this problem with my grandchildren, when one of them told me that he had been cycling there recently and had been struck in the face by a blackthorn branch and had a thorn stuck in his face.

I dread to think what the consequences might have been if the thorn had struck him in the eye.

Welwyn Hatfield Council doesn’t consider its footpaths a priority. I have been asking at the council office and three or four local councillors over the last two decades to clear the footpath of debris and I am just waiting for somebody to trip and do themselves some damage.

A copy of this letter will also be going to the local council.

Mr R Green,

Coppice Green, South Hatfield.