AS I walked home from work recently, I was almost knocked down by two adults on bicycles, riding down the pavement in Winchester Road.

Has the law been changed?' I recently saw a man cycling along the pavement past the police station in Shirley. Strangely, no copper came running out to apprehend him!

May I ask our local police chief to give us an answer to the mystery now bothering a growing number of pedestrians; is it now legal to cycle on pavements?

Because if it's not, then the law is never, and I mean never, enforced.

On the other hand, if the green lobby, or the worshipped masonic guild of cyclists, have quietly been given a nod and a wink to carry on, then can we have a line painted along the middle of our pavements, indicating which half is allocated to those of us merely on foot? Or better still, a chain-link fence?

COLIN HINGSTON, Upper Shirley, Southampton.

Chief Superintendent Paul Stickler, Southampton police commander, replies: The issue of cycling on pavements has the tendency to raise the emotions. Many argue that cycling on the pavement is far safer than on the road and that it is a sensible compromise. Others argue that the law should be enforced.

As a police officer who has to balance people's safety against law enforcement, I find myself somewhere in the middle. I, too, get annoyed with people cycling on the pavement when there is no need but I also see that in busy periods, cycling on the road is a risk.

As to enforcement, I do not forsee me troubling the magistrates courts too often but I would expect my officers to tell people to dismount whenever they come across the issue.

An enforcement campaign would undoubtedly draw criticism of us not getting to grips with real criminals.

Those who cycle on pavements span a very wide age range.