• AS an ex-retailer I am shocked to find that bicycle lanes have replaced parking spaces in our pleasant Belsize Park shopping street.

Although I understand environmental issues, retail is the lifeblood of our cities. If people can’t access their local shops, or cafés, or cinema, or beauty parlour, those units will close, and livelihoods lost.

Good retail units rely on business from outside the area, not just local trade, and those potential customers will stay away.

Where is the joy of shopping online compared with the relationships that develop between customers and retailers, or the pleasures of browsing in a bookshop etc?

On a practical level where will delivery vans park? Where can travellers be dropped off, especially the elderly?

Ironically I don’t actually see many cyclists using these lanes. We have witnessed the effects of Covid-19 and all-conquering Amazon on our high streets: empty shops.

Cycle lanes in busy shopping streets herald the death of retail, and the destruction of community life. I urge the council to reconsider.

PETER VOGL
Elsworthy Road, NW3