THE people of Winkleigh are rightly proud of their village; the Square in the centre is the heart of village life and there is a long history recorded in the buildings, landscapes and lives of the people in the community.

Like most places, Winkleigh has seen a lot of new development and more is being planned.

Too often this has been “tacked on”, with little thought about how the pieces fit together, or what is needed to help the place work well and still function as a community.

When the Community Plan was published in 2014, creating a Village Design Statement to promote good design principles was one of the actions identified.

A lot of work was done to try and understand what both historic and modern development could offer Winkleigh’s future.

Groups of residents appraised the old and new parts of the village and drew up a series of design principles to reflect what they felt should be given as advice to builders and developers.

The aim is to prevent the mistakes of the past, create a village where all areas are connected (a “walking” village) and conserve and promote traditional features in design so that Winkleigh retains its distinctiveness.

Importantly, it also looks ahead, so that future opportunities to improve the built environment are not sterilised and are positively encouraged.

All the work has now been drawn together into the Village Design Statement for Winkleigh.

To bring the publication to life, a “birds eye view” watercolour of Winkleigh was commissioned from local artist Brian Percival, and used for the cover and character appraisal of the village.

The original artwork has now been framed and was presented to the Parish Council at its meeting in November. It will hang in the Village Hall.

Torridge District Council has endorsed the Village Design Statement as a material planning consideration when looking at proposals and Winkleigh Parish Council will use it to help it respond to planning applications and to influence discussions with developers.

Both the Community Plan and Village Design Statement can be viewed online at: http://www.winkleighpc.org.uk/Winkleigh-PC/Community_Plan__and__VDS_17682.aspx .

Alan Quick