The Prince of Wales has been granted permission to create an 'eco-town' in Devon where every home comes free with a bicycle and wind-generated electricity.

Sherford, on the south west coast, is billed as the greenest settlement in Britain and will be home to 12,000 people.

The Prince's advisers have suggested that cars should be banned from some areas and three quarters of buildings fitted with solar power panels.

The ambience of the town will be traditionally English. Its Georgian-style high street will be modelled on the Wiltshire market town of Marlborough and there are plans for a cricket pitch and bowling green. No buildings will be taller than five storeys.

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The Prince has said he wants to build places "we all know strike a chord in our, by now, rather bewildered hearts, however 'modern' we are - places that convey an everlasting human story of meaning and belonging".

The project is due to be completed by 2020 on the rolling farmland on the edge of Plymouth and planners intend half of all Sherford's energy to come from renewable sources on site. Wind turbines will loom over the town's 400-acre park.

Work places employing an estimated 7,000 people will have roofs planted with greenery or covered with a thin layer of rubble to encourage insects and birds. An organic farm is planned for the park.

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