Village design statements

You can use village design statements as a tool to make sure that new development in your village respects the distinctive visual character of the place.

Village design statements do not detail what type of development should take place in a village or the state of local services.

If you are interested in these issues, you should contact your parish or town council and look to get involved in the parish plan.

The village design statement is only concerned with the visual character of a village and how it might be protected or enhanced. It has one big advantage, however, anyone in the village can take the lead in starting one up.

Tips for carrying out a village design statement
The main point of carrying out a village design statement is to get it adopted as a supplementary planning document in the local development framework for your area.

Therefore, you need to ensure that

Your local authority's local development scheme has provision or scope to include village design statements along with the other supplementary planning documents.

The policies in your village design statement are compatible with policies in the local development framework on design, landscape character and development in villages.

The Government's view of village design statements is found in planning policy (paragraph 18 of PPS 3 and paragraph 14 of PPS 7).

The Countryside Agency (onw Natural England) has available some basic guidance on effective village design statements.