Sir, As someone who has now lived in the Tweed Valley area for over 20 years I have witnessed the fantastic upsurge in outdoor pursuits and in particular the phenomenon of cycling both on and off road that this corner of Scotland offers.

With the various bad news stories over the years re’ employment in the traditional industries of our area, diversification and progression is something we see first hand with large events on the calendar. “Tour of Tweeddale” and “TweedLove” being examples going from strength to strength bringing much welcome revenue and repeat business to the area.

Peebles is a very bike friendly town and hard to rival for enthusiasm from young and old alike. Sadly, however, not everyone is equally bike friendly and, in fact, I would testify that some are just plain ignorant of cyclists and how to treat them on the roads.

Last Friday I was setting off on a 40 mile round trip to college in Dalkeith. On exiting the town at the end of Edinburgh Road some traffic had built up behind a Scottish Borders Council road sweeper. As is my right, I chose to filter to the head of the jam on my bike.

A small silver car seemed to try to block my path but I gave him the benefit of the doubt assuming his mirrors were on holiday. Disappointingly, as I got up to speed on exiting the town the same car on passing me nearly put me in the weeds by overtaking extremely closely and then cutting in front almost clipping me off.

I implore all road users to give cyclists a fair enough amount of room to pass safely. At most it may add a few seconds to your journey and everyone can return home in one piece. Please take into account that we cyclists can be hit by side winds and occasionally are blown further into road.

Once upon a time, councils repaired their clapped out roads but not anymore it seems. As a result cyclists need to be three feet in the road to avoid the potholes and collapsed edges.

Some cyclists don’t do themselves any favours at times but hopefully the world is becoming more bike friendly and with most cyclists also being motorists too I hope that incidents like the one stated will be the isolated near miss and not subject to a coroners report.

I am, etc.

Kenneth MacMillan George Street Peebles