HAVING reached the age of 58 without ever feeling moved to write to an elected representative, Wayne David’s comments about the Velothon have achieved a ‘first’. As someone proud to be born, raised and living in Caerphilly, I feel bound to write to you to express my sincere disappointment in the comments attributed to you in the South Wales Argus.
I participated in the Velothon event and was exceedingly proud of the fact that the route came through Caerphilly, and that so many of the townspeople came out to support the event. It brought participants from across the UK and further afield to visit Wales. I have no doubt that many will return to spend their time and their money in places like Blaenavon, Caerphilly and Cardiff as a result of the Velothon and similar initiatives.
At a time when we should all be promoting physical activity and encouraging people to see what our region has to offer, I feel your position to be unworthy of the elected representative of the people of Caerphilly and the worst kind of nimbyism. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your position on the future route of the Wales Velothon.
 I, for one, will be entering the event again next year and I hope that it will follow the same route. Perhaps you would care to join me? It’s never too late to reap the benefit of cardio-vascular fitness and the sight of their MP participating may encourage some other Caerphilly residents to get active; we do have some of the poorest levels of health and wellbeing in Europe, so why not show some leadership?

John Rawlins,
Machen