TOWNSPEOPLE have taken their pick out of six possible designs for new gateway signs that will welcome visitors to Devizes at its five road accesses.

People who visited the displays at Devizes Visitor Centre, the Corn Exchange, Devizes library and Safeway supermarket during March voted overwhelmingly for a sign incorporating a canal scene created by local artist Helen Stansford and the town crest of a stylised castle.

Voting was very close between options four and five, one with an oak frame and one with a blue metal frame, but the gateway signs working group, with members of Devizes Development Partnership and representatives of Kennet District Council and Wiltshire County Council, made the final decision for option four, with an oak frame and a town crest topping Mrs Stansford's design on a dark blue background.

Architect Mark Ellerby, who has led the project from the design point of view, said: "We may have misled some people who chose option five, because it was larger in scale than the other designs. They tended to chose it because the picture was bigger, but in fact the picture will be bigger on the oak-framed design."

Devizes' twin towns of Mayenne in France, Waiblingen in Germany, Tornio in Finland and Oamaru in New Zealand will be displayed on a lower panel, which will also be used to advertise major events in the town, such as the carnival and arts festival.

Funding of £15,000 for the welcome signs project has been made available through the South West Regional Development Agency's market and coastal towns initiative, for which Devizes is one of only two Wiltshire pilot schemes, and there is match funding of £3,000 due from the county council.

The finalised design must go to the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions for approval. The new signs could be up by July.