YOU can’t blame window cleaners for avoiding The Wintles. Polishing the 20ft-high windows and glass porches that characterise the houses of this scenic eco-village in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, must be a nightmare. “Those who do come tend never to return,” says Julian Symondson, who has just finished clearing up the mess left by pigeons under his rafters.

For Julian and his wife Chris, who live in a four-bedroom timber-framed house on the development, climbing a ladder is a small price to pay. “We are much better off here than in our Victorian rectory where we lived before,” says Chris. “The only way you are going to convert people into eco-living is to make it comfortable.”

With his plans for five eco-towns around Britain, Gordon Brown should take note. The Wintles is the sort of place that suits people who don’t want to get their hands too mucky. By yurt standards, it is eco-living lite, but it provides useful lessons to builders, planners and the Government as they try to reconcile the demand for housing with the need to be green.

The Symondsons’ house, like the other 19 on the site, is brand-new but looks timeless. Think Shropshire vernacular meets modern Scandinavia: every house is different, painted variously in chalky shades of turquoise, cobalt, saffron or powder pink. As well as timber frames, the architecture relies on traditional materials, such as lime mortar and timber cladding. Bricks and clay roof tiles are reclaimed; the water butts in the garden are old beer casks from the town’s two breweries. Pipes and guttering are copper. Then there are the vast windows, porches and conservatories. Some are framed in wood, others in aluminium. All face south to make the most of the sun. Triple glazing keeps the heat in, as does all the other unseen insulation. With layers of plywood, membranes and recycled newspaper, the walls are so thick that the Symondsons’ cat has to crawl through a foot-long cat tunnel (rather than flap) to come in.

Underfloor heating on the ground floor rises to heat the rest of the three-storey house; wood-burning stoves in the sitting room add extra warmth and water is heated by solar panels on the roof. A heat-exchange system sucks hot air out of the kitchen and bathrooms and uses it to heat fresh air, which is filtered for dust and allergens before it is pumped around the rest of the house. This provides warm but fresh air without having to open the windows in winter. The latest eco-innovations, such as geo-thermal energy pumps, are conspicuous by their absence.

Bob Tomlinson, the founder of Living Village Trust, the group behind The Wintles, says that lifestyle rather than technology has the greatest impact on the environment. “You can build two identical eco-homes and find that the carbon footprint of each varies because of the lifestyle of the people living there,” he says.

The almost medieval layout sets out to achieve this. There are no right angles and no straight lines. Gravel driveways (good for drainage) wind their way round the back of houses, where cars can be parked under a carport (there are no garages). Of the 12 acres of Living Village land, only five will be built on once the third phase of the development is completed in 2009, bringing the total number of houses to 40. The rest of the land is taken up by an orchard and allotments: every resident is given a plot.

Mark Jarratt, who moved here from Manchester two years ago, hardly ever buys vegetables these days. “I knew nothing about growing vegetables,” he says, “but from day one there were people around to give me tips.” Mark, his wife Susan and their children, Tom, 4, and Lucy, 14 months, spend most of their time outdoors. It is just a ten-minute walk into town or a little more to their favourite stream for a paddle.

This month Tom is walking to his new school alongside ten-year-old Katherine Clarke from across the green. Her parents, Helen and David Clarke, moved here to gain better access to good schools for Katherine and her sister Bethan, 14. “There is a real sense of people caring for each other here,” says Helen.

This bucolic eco-lifestyle comes at a price. Tomlinson is the first to admit that a house here costs 30 per cent more than a standard home in Shropshire. The original showhome is for sale via Halls, a local agent, for £450,000. Prices in the next batch will range from £299,000 for a three-bedroom home to £500,000 for five bedrooms.

Given the lack of well-paid jobs in the area, residents at The Wintles tend to be people seeking lifestyle changes or downshifters with plenty of equity from the sale of previous homes. Locals who grew up in Bishop’s Castle often end up in Ludlow or Shrewsbury. No wonder it’s hard to find a window cleaner. Living Villages 01494 670760, www.livingvillage.com ; Halls 01588 638755, www.hallsestateagents.co.uk

Are you concerned about your carbon footprint? Find out more at: timesonline.co.uk/greenhouse

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