Does anyone know why cyclists who want to abandon their bikes always padlock them to any handy lamp post or fence?

Surely they should just prop them up so they can be taken by someone more in need.

These thoughtless people certainly cannot be council taxpayers, otherwise they would resent, as I do, the money it costs Brighton and Hove City Council to remove these unsightly and ultimately dangerous machines as bits fall off them or they are vandalised.

My area is full of them – in fact, two bikes have been tethered to the council’s own fence in Tisbury Road for so long the hedges have grown around them.

Cyclists have had a lot of money spent on them recently and now that our council has made vast profits out of motorist parking fees, I suggest some of this money is spent not on more cycle lanes but on a scheme to remove these rusting hulks from our streets.

In fact, why not have parking wardens monitor these abandoned machines and report them to the council for removal?

Pauline Robertson, Cromwell Road, Hove