A city councillor wants cars to be banned from Brighton on the day of the annual bike ride from London.

Coun Joyce Edmond-Smith said: "At present we get the worst of all worlds.

"For cyclists the last part of a fairly tough 58-mile ride, after Ditchling Beacon, is by far the worst.

"They find themselves competing with cars and breathing in exhaust fumes at endless waits.

"There have often been accidents. It does not give them a good feeling about Brighton.

"Motorists, who optimistically seem to think they will beat the cycle ride or who forget about it, try to get into town, and then find themselves held up in massive tail backs, engines idling, spewing exhaust into the air and getting more and more irate.

"Surely we could avoid this if we simply said that on bike days there would be no access for cars to the centre of town. If Paris can ban cars for a day, could we not do this small thing?"

More than 27,000 people take part in the ride, which this year was on Sunday, raising large sums for the British Heart Foundation.