FIRST the good news for racecourse staff. They will be able to cycle to work during Royal Ascot.

This will please the pedal power brigade who were dismayed by the seeming anti-bicycle bias attached to this one-off race meeting.

After all, every other form of transport to the York race meeting has been actively encouraged.

The council has opened the riverside cycle path to taxis, and if you want to arrive by helicopter, coach or even horse-drawn carriage, no problem.

But cyclists had to fight to get bike racks installed by the course.

Now the inevitable bad news.

"At a recent staff meeting for Ascot at York," a York races insider tells the Diary, "day staff were told that, contrary to what they had read in the local papers, staff would be allowed to use their bicycles to get to the races.

"But there would be a small charge to park their bicycles on the Knavesmire." So while everyone else in York makes a mint from Royal Ascot, the workers will be asked to pay for the privilege of biking to work.

To save money, they might leave their bikes in those glorified cycle racks in front of the main stands.

What are they called again?

Oh yes, the stalls.

JUST because the Diary described a couple of Sussex-based York flat buyers as "pretentious, ignorant, asset-stripping southern prats", a reader has accused us of "anti-southern bias".

That reader is none other than former Tory parliamentary candidate for York Simon Mallett.

"My York born-and-bred sons searched Google to find the origins of Chris Titley given your anti-southern bias in the Diary," he writes.

"Unfortunately we are none the wiser. Perhaps you could enlighten us. Are you native York or just adopted York?"

Adopted and proud of it, Simon. This diarist originally hails from Nottinghamshire.

He goes on to make a suggestion.

"We also thought it might be in the best interests of inward investment in York and tourist income if your editor sent you on a month's sabbatical in the run-up to Ascot.

"I suspect your article was a cunning ploy for that overseas research trip in order to avoid York during the Ascot invasion."

The idea never occurred, Simon. But now you have suggested it, we will be raising the suggestion with the editor the moment he emerges from the bookies.

THE Diary's revelation that BBC Radio York is losing listeners hand over microphone came as no surprise to Mr A L Dixon of Bishopthorpe, York.

He wrote to station boss Matt Youdale in March with suggestions about how he could make the corporation-imposed cutbacks without damaging the service.

To his credit, Matt sent him a detailed reply, but Mr Dixon is still unhappy with the way Radio York is going.

"My wife and I are now less frequent listeners to Radio York and now tend to listen more to Radio 2 and Radio 4 than we used to," he tells the Diary. "Obviously they have got it wrong if the numbers of listeners have dropped so much.

"If constructive criticism isn't taken on board I would expect that the numbers will drop even more."

Mr Dixon fears this could lead to a time when "the powers-that-be with the purse strings could very easily say it is not worth continuing with our local station and withdraw funding completely".

Updated: 09:28 Wednesday, May 18, 2005