I am not sure who was the more surprised when, somewhere in deepest Tooting, the leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Ken Bodfish, and myself found ourselves - beneath protective helmets - cycling alongside each other on the London-to-Brighton bike ride.

What's more, we found common cause in astonishment that Southern had banned cyclists from its trains.

We agreed it was no good simply to complain to each other.

Feelings had to be made known in a way that could have an effect in time for next year's 30th anniversary ride, when the British Heart Foundation, naturally, hopes to do better than ever.

I said I would be writing to Southern's managing director to suggest his firm has considerably more to gain from accommodating and even sponsoring the ride than from banning bikes.

Other cyclists could do likewise.

He is Charles Horton at Southern, Go-Ahead House, 26-28 Addiscombe Road, Croydon, Surrey CR9 5GA.

As such, a 28p stamp could add considerably to all the effort everybody made this year.

One trusts next year Coun Bodfish will find himself in the company of other councillors and party leaders on a ride that raises funds that are a boon to those who live far from a seaside finishing-post where welcoming crowds bring the event national attention.

Meanwhile, I was amused by the children, somewhere in Sussex, who offered passing cyclists a "free squirt" from a water-pistol - making what would otherwise have been mischief into a charitable gesture.

-Christopher Hawtree, Hove