I HAVE had a good summer walking on our hills most evenings - often the best part of the day this year. On only two or three occasions have I encountered the forbidden wheels - in each case well controlled and sometimes giving me a rare thrill watching the cyclist skim down one hill and up the other like a modern crusader riding into battle! This on entirely empty paths. When I have been overtaken more discreetly on the lower "pensioners walk". I have not been, in any sense, upset.

We in Malvern, are on the whole a law-abiding lot, so it occurs to me that the majority of bike owners do respect the Conservator's ruling. But could it not possibly be relaxed for single bike riders? It is the nature of youth to crave speed and power and a bicycle on a sparsely peopled hill track is much less likely to lead to tragedy than a car (too often stolen) speeding on country roads.

I sometimes wonder if there is still not too much clipping of young wings in certain sections of society in its desperate effort to control our mercifully war spared, but still wild at heart children. I am well served by the Black Hill car park, which gets me near enough to tackle the peaks. What about just one route where younger blithe spirits can fly free along that magnificent ridge between the Severn plain and the far hills?

Kathleen Tookey, Evendine Lodge, Colwall.