CYCLING groups vowed to continue the fight for a family-friendly route in the Wye Valley despite suffering a setback in the courts.

Wye Valley Communities for Safe Cycling were dismayed after campaigners successfully overturned the planning application for the six-mile gravel track between Tintern and Chepstow at the High Court in London.

A coalition of environmental and pressure groups, worried about a potential deluge of vehicles from outside the area driven by people wishing to use the cycle track, successfully argued that Monmouthshire council's handling of the application was flawed.

David Rooke is co-chair of the cycling group, which is working on the bid alongside Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sustrans.

Mr Rooke, 55, who enjoys regular cycling trips with his wife, Jackie, Holly 10, and Bryony 13, said: "The idea that this will disrupt the tranquility of the countryside is crazy.

"If the campaigners succeed, the losers will be children, disabled people, walkers and cyclists.

Monmouthshire council approved the planning application in September 2006.

However, Mr Justice Collins quashed the plans two months ago after the council's legal department agreed to settle out of court.

The campaigners' barrister successfully argued that Monmouthshire's handling of the application was "confused", and environmental assessments were carried out on the basis that it was a local route, when in fact it should have been classed as national.

National Director for Sustrans in Wales, Lee Waters, insisted the predictions were accurate.

"We do not anticipate that this new Connect2 path will have a significant impact on increasing car-traffic or noise levels, and this is borne out by the accuracy of our previous predictions regarding the impact of traffic on the local area of our Peregrine Path from Monmouth to Symonds Yat," he said.

A spokesman for Sustrans added a revised application would be submitted to Monmouthshire council this month.

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Project will run on disused railway line
  • The gravel track will run along a disused railway line between Tintern Old Station and Brockweir.
  • The application includes plans for a new lightweight bridge across the River Wye which would connect the village of Tintern with the Old Station, a popular visitor centre.
  • It was one of the 79 Sustrans Connect 2 projects across the UK which benefited from a £375,000 slice of £50 million in lottery funding after the sustainable transport charity won the People's £50 Million Giveaway on ITV1.