GA Musey may ultimately prove correct in his assertion that the mayor’s £110m “Mini-Holland” cycling project is “doomed to failure” due to the essential nature of the car.

However, just how spectacular such a strategic failure would be for this city can be gauged as the intent of 2010’s Cycling Strategy for London starts to be seen.

Camden’s scheme, announced earlier this month, will invest £25m in making Tottenham Court Road cycle/pedestrian-centric and ban cars. Doomed? Their planned network of linked cycle routes and four new public spaces are presumably also doomed. This week’s announcement of a substantive, car-excluding, cycling superhighway linking Kings Cross with Elephant and Castle planned to open in 2016 – doomed.

The largely car free, 67-acre, European leading mixed-use development under way at Kings Cross – doomed to be a white elephant until lifesaving roads can be driven through it. Enfield Borough Council may as well give up now on our own scheme.

Far better we create the extra road capacity he indicates is needed for the irreplaceable car. Never mind the London Plan’s core push towards preserving green space and prioritising land for much needed housing while giving ever greater focus on the mitigation needs of climate change.

You have to look no further than the booming businesses, enjoyment levels and the tourist trappings of Covent Garden, arguably the central tourist point in the world’s most popular tourist city, to realise just how wrong we got it.

I’m sure Mr Musey would agree just how much better it would be had we followed the original plan and bulldozed it all to bring in that much needed cut-through road from the Strand to Kingsway.

K Brown

Old Park Road, Palmers Green