Willesley Environment Protection Association wants to install road signs acknowledging the area as a 'Thankful Village'

The term refers to settlements in England and Wales from which all their members of the armed forces survived World War I.

Thankful Villages was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s and his initial list identified 32 of them.

The Chairman of WEPA invited the Ashby de la Zouch Town Council - at its recent planning committee meeting - to support a request from the Association which wants backing to install road signs acknowledging the settlement of Willesley as a 'Thankful Village', and, to highlight the advantages of the Willesley area including:

• Making reference to this on the Town Council website;

• When commenting on the Local Plan Review;

• Including it the next review of the Ashby Neighbourhood Plan.

Cllr Dan Harrison expressed concern regarding the political connotations with this request, particularly with regards to the Local Plan and the Neighbourhood Plan and that the Town Council may end up walking into classing Willesley as a village and therefore a separate entity.

He said he would not want to be part of a decision to classify it as a village.

Cllr Mary Tuckey commented that it has historical connotations and if there are only around 50 'Thankful Villages' in the country she would want to know more about it and did not see anything wrong with the request for support.

Councillors then discussed the location of Willesley Village and its boundaries before it formed part of Ashby de la Zouch.

But the committee resolved to defer the request to support the proposal from WEPA to install road signs until the next meeting so that the Association has time to provide additional information - including boundaries of the settlement and where it is proposed the road signs should be situated.