FAMILIES are celebrating after forcing plans for a controversial cycle route off track.

Residents are delighted that Chiltern District Council has thrown out plans for a cycle route which would have taken hundreds of cyclists through their quiet cul-de-sac.

Plans for a route through Sandels Wood into Mynchen Close, Knotty Green, have been abandoned after fierce opposition from villagers.

Penn parish councillor Derek Brydon said residents had taken the fight against the proposals up a gear at a parish council meeting last month.

Mr Brydon, who has lived in Mynchen Close for more than ten years, said: 'There is such strong feeling from residents about this and the meeting was particularly fiery.

'Now we are just relieved that it is not going ahead. It's great news.

'The route coming from the wood would have led on to the road where lots of the children play and it is so narrow they would hardly be able to see the cyclists coming.

'The other problem is that it is mainly elderly people who walk through the wood and there are so many twists and turns in the track that they could have been mown down.'

Father-of-two Mark Carpenter, who lives in the road, said: 'We had to fight hard for the decision and the work has reaped its rewards.

'We live on a quiet cul-de-sac and want it to stay that way. This would have been an accident waiting to happen.'

The district council had planned to integrate the route into the new Chiltern Heritage Trail which has a series of three loops, each covering approximately 25 miles, taking cyclists around the countryside.

But the south loop would have cut through woods owned by Earl Howe and cyclists would have spilled out on to the cul-de-sac.

A spokesman at Chiltern District Council told the Free Press: 'We have taken on board what the residents have said and decided not to go ahead with it, and so this particular part of it has been scrapped.'