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Northamptonshire officers to have 10-hour bike lesson

A move stopping Northamptonshire police riding bicycles on patrol until they have a 10-hour lesson has been called health and safety "gone too far".
Officers in the Parklands area of Northampton have been issued mountain bikes by the force. But they cannot ride them until the summer when they will have completed a 10-hour training course.
Borough councillor Malcolm Mildren said: "This is a health and safety doctrine that has gone too far." He said: "I have ridden a bike for years but I think I could ride a mountain bike safely, if not quickly, after about half an hour. I imagine that in the good old days of Dixon of Dock Green when officers went to Hendon (police training college), the first thing they would have learnt would have been how to ride a bike."
Officers are expected to be allowed to start riding their bikes in the summer when they will have received training.
A spokesman for Northamptonshire Police said "the course covers issues relating to using a bike on patrol" and "how to use the bike as defence if confronting an offender".
Last year police were issued with a 93-page guide on how to ride a bicycle.
The Police Cycle Training Doctrine gave advice on how to balance, brake and avoid the kerb.
Officers were also advised to eat and drink because they will get hungry, and to wear padded shorts to protect their bottoms.