I AM interested to see the healthy debate sparked amongst my fellow readers and contributors to the Echo regarding how to have a festival in Bournemouth.

With regards to pleasure and money attracted I would like to say the following.

In this day and age bikes have shaken off the hippies and burglars image.

As a long time vegetable box customer, I fall into the first category rather than the latter.

Money actually follows the bikes, so that whereas it used to be said that the best way of valuing property in a neighbourhood was how many joggers went by in an hour (yes I know, this was the 1980s).

Now it is how many bikes go by. The City of London has a huge, recent, heavily-used cycle lane giving access for the people who live and breathe money to get to work.

Numerous studies have shown the value added to both residential property values and commercial office blocks by investment in cycling and walking improvements.

This is because being able to leave your home or get to work without having to sit in a car in a traffic jam is a huge selling point.

The few residents of Orchard and Twemlow Avenue who objected to Keyhole Bridge being a cycle and walking route have shot themselves in the foot as far as removing a valuable selling point for their homes by reopening that single lane bridge to cars again.

Sandbanks had cycle lanes in decades before anywhere else on the BCP coast, hence its rapid rise in international popularity and value.

Before that it was mainly saggy-roofed bungalows with loft extensions.

As for pleasure, any exercise releases “happy” chemicals called endorphins into the brain.

This is why children who have walked or cycled to school are so much easier to teach, and why the schools are promoting cycling.

Many of the office blocks currently to let in BCP area have showers provided to allow cycling to work because exercising before and after work is so much better for concentration in a desk job.

We saw people really enjoying cycling all through our towns during lock down when the roads were so much safer because of fewer cars about.

My suggestion to upgrade the air festival to a cycle festival is all about attracting money to the towns and giving people pleasure.

SUSAN STOCKWELL

Britannia Road, Poole