DISGRUNTLED village chiefs in Addingham have added their voices to the growing discontent over the adoption of village design statements.

After being instructed by members of the parish council, Clerk Pam Boulton said she wrote to Bradford Council planners asking why the Addingham Village Design Statement had not been formally adopted.

Before the Keighley Area Planning Panel can take the Addingham Design Statement into account when deciding to accept or reject planning applications, it has to be adopted by the panel. Its recommendations will then have the authority of law.

Mrs Boulton told the parish council meeting said she had been in touch with the planning department and had been told that there were not enough staff to deal with it yet.

Parish councillor Alan Jerome said: "It is disappointing that we were one of the first councils to produce a village design statement when we were told by central Government that we needed one."

To prevent unwanted development on their doorstep, towns and villages nationwide were invited to produce village design statements so they could be taken into account by planning authorities, along with Government and local authority guidelines.

Although a design statement for an area cannot stop developers building new houses, they can be used by planners to make sure standards and types of development are acceptable to people already living there.

The Addingham Design Statement was published in May 2001 amid high hopes that it would be used to protect the village from house builders who wanted to build out of character executive-style homes.

Almost three years later, villagers are still waiting for its guidelines to be formally adopted by planners.

Parish council vice-chairman Michael Aldridge was critical of the seeming inaction over its adoption.

"Considering the fact that our design statement was finished before Ilkley had even started theirs I really think they ought to get their fingers out," said Coun Aldridge.

Ilkley's Design Statement was published in February 2002 and the group responsible for producing it has recently lambasted planners for not adopting its recommendations.

After a proposal by Councillor Alan Jerome, parish councillors agreed to write to Bradford's interim chief executive, Philip Atkinson, to inform him of the delay and their dissatisfaction with it.

After the meeting, Chris Greaves the chairman of the Keighley area planning panel, defended Bradford planners saying that they had only limited resources to deal with many village design statements which needed processing as well as 50 proposed Conservation Area alterations in the system.

"There is a limited team and you can't do them all at once," said Coun Greaves.

He said that processing design statements was a protracted operation involving separating purely planning guidance from other material in the statement's wish list. Coun Greaves said: "Not everything in a village design statement is planning related."

Planners also needed to work out where design statements conflicted with central Government planning guidance or local authority planning policy. He said that it would be illogical for planning authorities to adopt conflicting planning guidance.

He added: "It is a matter of balancing resources. Village design statements are very time consuming."