• AT a Gospel Oak Safer Neighbourhoods Panel meeting people registered extreme concern at the numbers of selfish unmasked joggers and cyclists on Hampstead Heath.

Those attending cited the experience of being brushed aside by huffing and puffing, unmasked, joggers inches away as a reason why they no longer felt safe from possible infection walking on the Heath, while selfish cyclists, of course, remain an ever-present menace.

I reached out to the City of London Corporation suggesting that there might be coned-off lanes for joggers and cyclists at this time of intense peak use, only to be told that there were, unfortunately, insufficient resources to manage such a scheme. Guidelines are posted, but apparently no more can be done.

On the assumption that there are responsible groups of cyclists and joggers who use Hampstead Heath, might they be persuaded to volunteer to manage such a separation strategy to protect ordinary Heath users, particularly as joggers and cyclists make their own steady demands on the National Health Service from routine non-collision injuries (cyclists) to knee and hip replacements (joggers)?

CHRIS FAGG
Gospel Oak Safer Neighbourhoods Panel