A dedicated time slot for cyclists was among the ideas discussed at a public meeting about cycling in Richmond Park last week.

Hundreds attended the debate at Duke Street Church, Richmond, on December 17, which was organised by MP Zac Goldsmith to discuss "growing tensions" between road users.

The potential of a one-way system, giving police more enforcement powers and specific cycle lanes were also debated.

Mr Goldsmith fed back the results of a survey his office carried out, which found 28 per cent of respondents considered enforcing speed limits to be a priority.

Five per cent of people also said the speed limit should be increased from the current 20mph to 30mph.

Sergeant Michael Boulton, who is in charge of policing in the park, said: "Since April, 126 speeding motor vehicles have been given a ticket or court summons.

"The average speed of those was 38mph, with a top speed of 56mph."

He added, in that time, 30 cyclists had received written warnings and of those, the average speed was 33mph - with a maximum of 37mph.

Fred Davis, a Richmond resident for 40 years, said: "Cyclists say they don't know what speed they are doing but if they go past a car, they are doing more than 20mph."

Another member of the audience said: "Driving through Richmond Park is very hard at 20mph, it is hard to keep to 20mph, particularly if you had kids to get to school."

The majority of the audience raised their hands in support of exploring the possibility of opening the park early at weekends for time trial cyclists.

Also on the panel was Mayor of London Boris Johnson's cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan, who said: "Clearly if one problem is enforcement, it isn't working well enough and we need to fix current enforcement before creating new ones."

Colin Buttery, director of parks at Royal Parks, said toll charges for the thoroughfare had been explored in the past.

He added: “There is not the political will to do it at the moment but I have to say that is a possibility in the future."

On the subject of widening the roads, Mr Goldsmith made clear his opposition to the further urbanisation of the park, to rapturous applause.