I LAUGHED out loud when I read that the council had won an award for the Orient Way cycle track, supposedly "the best in London" (Guardian, November 15).

This cycle track follows a route that is of absolutely no value to cyclists, going from the Asda car park at one end to an industrial estate next to the rubbish tip in Walthamstow at the other end not a strategic route for commuter cycling.

It is not even of value as a leisure route because the surroundings are ugly and you have to cycle next to traffic going at twice the speed limit about as much fun as cycling up the hard shoulder of the M11.

I am baffled by the description of the "underground crossing at Lea Bridge Road". There isn't one.

Instead, you have to wait ages at a set of lights to get to a traffic island, then wait an eternity to cross the next bit of Lea Bridge Road. You similarly have to wait an eternity to cross several complicated junctions at the Asda end.

At the Asda end there is broken glass everywhere. Along the rest of it the cycle path is already covered in a carpet of grit and rubbish thrown up by passing vehicles, a problem compounded by fly tipping at intervals all along the route. Not surprisingly, this supposedly wonderful cycle path seems permanently deserted and I have never seen anyone on it.

SARAH WILSON,

Francis Road,

Leyton