THE Exmoor village which was a childhood home for both former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin has become the centre of a controversial new conservation area.

Members of Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) voted to impose a conservation area on tiny Winsford despite the mixed views of residents and parish councillors.

However, they dropped similar plans for a Simonsbath conservation area because of the overwhelming opposition of local councillors and the community.

No new conservation areas have been created on Exmoor for almost 30 years, with the existing 16 having been created in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

The last ones to be set up were in 1994 in Dulverton, Luccombe, and Wootton Courtenay.

The authority’s’s head of conservation and access Rob Wilson-North told members the designation of Winsford would help to ensure its historic and architecturally important buildings were not degraded or eroded.

But Mr Wilson-North said further work was needed to help residents understand the benefits of conservation area status for their community and to ensure they were comfortable with the process.

Boris Johnson, whose family home is near Winsford, was Prime Minister from 2019 until last year and also served as Foreign Secretary and was previously Mayor of London.

Ernest Bevin, who was born and started school in Winsford, went on to co-found the Transport and General Workers Union and also served as Foreign Secretary in the 1940s and 1950s.

The ENPA had been recommended to also impose conservation area status on Simonsbath because of its cultural and historical significance to the development of Exmoor.

Members were told that without it there was no guarantee that new residents moving to the area would look after historic buildings in the future.

However, they recognised the Simonsbath community had expressed strong feelings against the designation and so the proposal was rejected.

ENPA chairman Robin Milton said the decision would not devalue the importance of Simonsbath and it would still benefit from the protections of being in a national park and local plan policies would continue to apply.