A GROUP of campaigners from Mill Hill have been warned their victory over a council plan to build a road over a leafy street may not be permanent.

On Sunday a group of 30 residents and local councillors who formed the Save Sanders Lane group came together to celebrate Barnet Council dropping plans to develop the ancient byway.

John Ware leading campaigner against the plans, which would have seen the road used as part of a new east-west link, said: “I would not call it a victory, I would say we have won a battle.

“I'm not convinced we have won the war yet. Whether it has been permanently removed from the council plans, or whether this is just a respite remains to be seen, but we thought it was a good moment to celebrate that victory anyway.”

The group came together to fight the plans after being made aware of them at the last minute as they were part of a plans put forward to redevelop the Ingliss Barracks in the area.

Many feared it would lead from the small pathway being turned into an access connecting the proposed 2,600 new homes with the A1.

Mr Ware, a Lidbury Estate resident, added: “We have had great support form all the local councillors, both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, and the MP Andrew Dismore has also been very supportive.

“At the moment the council does not have the money to implement the plans, but we are wary as in a few years time they may be in a better position, so we are on our guard.”

However, in December a planning inspector branded the idea of using converting the lane as “thin, contradictory and unconvincing” and in the summer Barnet Council announced the plans had been dropped from its corporate plan.

Mr Ware, who addressed the gathering at the Angel and Crown pub in Sanders Lane on Sunday, added: “If there's one good thing to come out of this it has bought a lot of like-minded people together.”