Campaigners are celebrating after ministers agreed to move the proposed line of the high speed rail route from London to Birmingham away from picturesque Warwickshire villages.

The line has been redrawn after talks between MPs and the Department for Transport, which is keen to avoid a lengthy battle with pressure groups.

Jeremy Wright, Conservative MP for Kenilworth and Southam, has hailed the changes as a victory for Warwickshire residents.

The proposed line has now been altered to pass to the north of Ladbroke in a cutting 600 metres away from homes instead of thundering over a four-kilometre long viaduct within 150 metres of the historic village.

At Burton Green, near Coventry, the line will be covered by a tunnel rather than cutting the village in two by occupying the path of a tiny unused railway which closed during the 1960s.

The village of Stoneleigh has also been granted a reprieve after the line has been moved away from homes and instead onto the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh Park.

The partial victory is the result of a series of meetings between Mr Wright and transport minister Theresa Villiers.

But campaigners said they were still opposed to the idea of the high speed link and remain unconvinced about the Government’s projected passenger figures and claimed economic benefits.

Graham Long, chairman of the Ladbroke Action Group, said: “In terms of mitigating the disastrous consequences of the initial route, this has to be seen as a victory.

“The sight and sound of trains passing the village 150 metres away from homes on a viaduct would have been unbearable.

“But there are several arguments going on at once and we remain opposed to the concept of the high speed rail line.”

A Department for Transport report published this week said great care had been taken to try and avoid cutting a swathe through historic farmland at Stoneleigh, but this could now mean that two Grade II listed buildings will be demolished.

The department said it will release new detailed maps in the next three weeks. Attempts were made to alter the route past Burton Green but instead risked moving the track closer to residential properties at Balsall Common, said the report.

Instead it has been decided that the route will be covered by a tunnel beneath the old railway cutting but some homes close to the cutting may still be at threat from the development.

Other changes have been made at Brackley in Northamptonshire and Chipping Warden in Oxfordshire.

Mr Wright said: “The changes reflect in part what we have been saying should be done.

“I think it shows that the Department for Transport and the ministers are prepared to listen to the residents and work with them.

“Of course the argument doesn’t stop there because there are those who feel that there should be no high speed route, although I don’t agree with them.”