Helmets could be made mandatory for riders taking part in hill climbs, with the matter set to be voted on at the annual general meeting of the national council of Cycling Time Trials (CTT) on Sunday.

CTT is the national governing body for time trialling in the UK, and its remit also extends to hill climbs, typically held over the autumn.

Events such as the Catford Hill Climb in Kent – the world’s oldest bike race, tracing its history back to 1886 – and the Monsal Hill Climb in Derbyshire attracting strong competition and hundreds of spectators

Regulation 15 of CTT’s Regulations governs protective helmets and starts with the words: “All competitors under the age of 18 years and/or Juniors must wear a properly affixed helmet which must be of hard/soft shell construction.”

A proposed amendment put forward by CTT’s Scotland District Council and which aims to “enhance competitor safety” would remove the words “under the age of 18 years and/or Juniors” as well as the words “(or parent or guardian if the rider is aged under 18 years of age)” from the regulation.

The effect would be to extend it to all riders competing in events sanctioned by the governing body.

However, there have been suggestions on social media that other districts might be mandated by their memberships to introduce a further amendment specifically excluding hill climbs from the scope of the regulation, other than for under-18 or Junior riders.

For the amendment to pass, it would need to have support of at least two thirds of the delegates at the national council’s meeting, which takes place in Daventry, Northamptonshire this weekend.

As well as hill climbs, the proposed amendment means that the regulation would apply to all time trials sanctioned by CTT. While almost all participants in those would wear a helmet anyway – not least to improve aerodynamics – in longer events, riders may remove them late on for reasons of comfort.

Other proposed amendments to the regulations on the agenda for Sunday’s meeting include that competitors should be required to have front and rear lights to make them more visible to other road users, and that a current ban on headphones and earphones other than hearing aids be extended to include bike-mounted speakers.