A Richmond father and cyclist has spoken of his horror at the reaction to a social media video showing a car in a close pass with his daughter.

Tim Lennon was cycling with his daughter, who was eight at the time, on a road in Ham, which is officially designated as a quiet way route.

A video of the incident showed a Range Rover coming within a few feet of the young girl in a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre.

All this happened in 2017, however the footage has recently been posted on Twitter and followed up by some online news organisations.

The issue of how drivers should overtake cyclists has hit the headlines recently with changes to the Highway Code, which stress a need to leave a gap of at least 1.5m when passing.

Mr Lennon, who is Convenor of the Richmond Cycling Campaign, has been horrified at the reaction of some drivers to the video.

Rather than accepting the driver was at fault, they have criticised him for not ensuring his daughter was wearing a helmet. Bizarrely, some have even implied the family should, in some way, be referred to Social Services.

Mr Lennon told Nub News that he reported the incident to the police at the time and provided the video footage, but no action was taken.

'In my view, the driver should have been prosecuted. It was both dangerous and unnecessary, and genuinely put my daughter's life at risk,' he said.

'It's very obvious a vehicle is approaching from the other direction, and it's a 20mph road on which we were probably doing about 12mph, so no-one was being radically delayed.'

On the vitriol he has received from some drivers, he said: "It's really disappointing that people think wearing a helmet is the observation here.

"It would have made no difference, and it doesn't make me a bad parent for us not choosing to use them."

He added: "I'm absolutely done with people who think this is some kind of social services referral.

"They all crawl out of the woodwork to comment, but you never see any of these people trying to make a genuine difference either to road safety or to the safety of our children."

He said headlines labelling bike riders who are arguing for safe roads as 'cycling zealots' are making matters worse.

"Such language serves only to make just getting around by bike seem something special and weird, when we should recognise it as the most normal thing in the world," he said.

Mr Lennon said his daughter has been put off cycling because of safety concerns.

"She's now 13 and could do all sorts of trips to see friends by bike, but rarely does because we always worry about behaviour like in the video, which is actively and uncritically supported by people who refuse to show any empathy at all," he said.

Mr Lennon is a supporter of the new Highway Code, saying he believes it should make the roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians.