DEVELOPERS looking to build in Winchester will be encouraged to take a more sensitive approach to its historic setting, civic chiefs said as new design guidelines were approved.

A paper adopted last week will help to stop “less attractive” plans being submitted by property firms, Winchester’s top civic chief said.

High Quality Places will reinforce guidance on size, layout and types of housing as well as trees, roads and parking.

The 100-page document was legally adopted on Wednesday and will inform the council when it approves or rejects planning applications.

Simon Eden, chief executive of Winchester City Council, said design was an "untrumpeted” part of town planning.

"Design quality is very mother and apple pie, and it's disappointing that we have to keep reinforcing with the development industry how important this is," he told a cabinet meeting.

"The design, I think everybody recognises, is important to the quality of place for people who live there, people who visit and people who want to invest there.

"It's going to help us ... to stop some of the, shall we say, less attractive developments coming forward."

But Mr Eden warned against historic "pastiche", echoing the sentiment at recent planning meetings of those defending controversial schemes including Silver Hill and Extra Care housing on Chesil Street.

The document supports good ‘places’ as well as buildings, said John Hearn, its author.

"Sense of place is a positive thing,” he told cabinet. “The [Peninsula] barracks, for example, has a sense of place.

"Some other areas - hopefully not too many in Winchester, but elsewhere as we go around - we see a new development and it's the same as a new development somewhere else in another area. It has no sense of place."