A NEW route has been revealed for a major cycle race in Worcestershire after an outcry by residents forced organisers to change it.

We previously reported how 15,000 riders will descend on Worcestershire for Vélo Birmingham, an 100-mile closed roads charity bike ride.

Worcestershire County Council had agreed that roads along more than 60 miles of Worcestershire countryside could be closed for most of the day, a Sunday in September, to allow the race to take place safely.

But a route change has now been agreed following a tidal wave of complaints.

The new route will now only pass through 40 miles of Worcestershire countryside and has three major changes from the previous route.

Instead of heading from Birmingham into Worcestershire at Wolverley, bikers will now go into Staffordshire for around 20 miles of the race.

Cyclists will then approach Wolverley and head towards Bewdley and Great Witley as first planned.

However, a major part of the route which was due to loop around West Worcestershire has been changed so the plan to circle Great Witley, Martley and Stanford Bridge has been removed.

Lastly, a problematic part of the route between Droitwich and Cutnall Green has been changed so instead of cyclists heading up the A451, where business parks and pubs would have been affected by road closures, riders will now along Berry Lane, a more rural lane.

Cyclists at the event on Sunday, September 24 will no longer pass through Herefordshire at all.

Jon Fraser, head of highways from Worcestershire County Council, said: "We've been in dialogue with them and we had some concerns over the impact (of the route).

"We support this sort of thing but we need to balance that with the interests of businesses and residents.

"People have raised a number of concerns and we've been discussing this and this is partly the solution.

"They've addressed a lot of our concerns by changing the route.

"We still have some concerns at Ombersley and Belbroughton where there's still some work to do.

He added: "We told them we were disappointed by some of the consultation and responses to businesses so far and I think they realised they need to put more resource and time into that.

"It's a good compromise, however we do recognise there is still some work to be done for local access solutions."

Mr Fraser said organisers had also agreed they would raise the profile of Worcestershire by featuring it more predominantly in race material and on its website.

The changes were welcomed by West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin, who said: “We have had farmers worried about their ability to harvest, businesses who would be forced to shut for the whole day and even people who wanted to have family parties who would be trapped in their homes for up to 12 hours.

“I am glad that the organisers have listened to local people’s serious reservations and I think that they are taking a ‘common-sense’ approach to this problem by re-thinking the route."