A COUNCIL has rejected a scheme for two new homes in Wooburn Green – saying it would have compromised future plans for rail or cycle link between Bourne End and High Wycombe.

The decision is a victory for Simon and Jo Bristow, who are neighbours of the land behind Wycombe Lane.

They previously said the pair of three-bed houses would have overlooked their homes and set a precedent for 'garden grabbing'.

Cycle charity Sustrans, the Chiltern Society and Wooburn and Bourne End Parish Council also objected to the plan from Gerhardt Consulting Ltd.

The site behind 149 Wycombe Lane has been earmarked as part of a possible cycle route by Wycombe District Council.

It lies along the old railway line from Bourne End to Loudwater, which The Windsor Link Railway Company and Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead have aspirations to restore.

Planning officers gave several other reasons for refusal, saying the new homes would have a detrimental impact on neighbours' privacy and “introduce an uncharacteristic and undesirable pattern of development”.

Meanwhile, the council has refused a separate plan for a bungalow behind 171 Boundary Road, about 500 metres from the Wycombe Lane site, saying the it would be “cramped” and “overdeveloped”.