SATURDAY 9 MAY 2026
Exeter Pride 2026
Exeter Pride returns for a celebration of LGBTQ+ diversity and visibility with a parade, music, cabaret, marketplace and more.
EXETER CITY CENTRE
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Exeter City Council has been awarded £20 million of government PRIDE IN PLACE funding to be spent over the next ten years in Heavitree and Whipton. It says it will set up a dedicated board with Exeter MP Steve Race to “bring together residents, councillors, local organisations and partners to identify priorities and guide how the funding is used”.
An Exeter City Council bid to become 2029 UK CITY OF CULTURE has failed, as have rival bids by Plymouth and Bristol. The council announced its intention to submit a bid in late January at a promotional event which opened with a speech from council CEO Bindu Arjoon just two weeks after she presented a report claiming the council did not have sufficient capacity to hold this year’s local elections. The council’s previous city of culture bid also failed. The repeatedly-delayed replacement for Exeter’s cultural strategy, which expired two years ago, is currently scheduled for adoption in August.
Hire-by-the-hour car club CO WHEELS, which operates in 63 towns and cities in England and Scotland, has launched a scheme in Exeter with five low-emission hybrid vehicles located in Southernhay, Powderham Crescent, College Road, Polsloe Road and Bartholomew Street West. Devon County Council has been trying to procure a new countywide car club provider since the collapse of Exeter-based shared mobility provider Co-Cars, which ceased trading in July 2023 along with shared bike scheme Co-Bikes.
SATURDAY 9 MAY 2026
Exeter Pride returns for a celebration of LGBTQ+ diversity and visibility with a parade, music, cabaret, marketplace and more.
EXETER CITY CENTRE
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Our guide to casting your ballot in person, by post and by proxy as well as voter ID requirements and regulations for casting postal votes.
Send us campaign materials as this year’s contest enters its final week so we can fact-check candidates’ claims and hold them to their pledges after the votes have been counted.
Council leader Phil Bialyk celebrates rapid Exeter population rise but fails to mention think-tank findings on falling disposable incomes, declining living standards, low wages and unaffordable housing – or impact of student numbers on population figures.
City council elections take place on Thursday 7 May. Our comprehensive guide covers who’s standing where, wards to watch and the backdrop to this year’s ballot, which looks set to end fourteen years of Labour majority control over the city.
Public consultation on changes explores possibility of closing some branches altogether despite claims to the contrary while Libraries Unlimited contract extension decision scheduled for six weeks before consultation ends.
Complex of seven blocks up to six storeys tall on site of police station and magistrates court to bring purpose-built temporary accommodation tally to 3,250 beds in Newtown alone – while failing to meet local plan minimum building separation policy.
21 people died while homeless in Exeter in 2024, nearly three times as many as previous year, but council says nothing despite report publication during city homeless awareness week.
Labour councillors plumb new depths to cling to power – and personal financial gain – as government-backed contempt for democracy enables seven of eight executive members to avoid ballots in their wards until council abolition in 2028.
Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.
Rejection of voluntary and community sector calls for more inclusive response follows thirteen-year council failure to comply with legal duties under crime and disorder legislation in relation to Exeter Community Safety Partnership.
Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.
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Five gas boilers to provide 80% of “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields plant generation capacity for distribution to institutional consumers through privately-run 13-mile underground network expected to take ten years to complete.
Charges for waterways access are set to be imposed from the quay and canal basin to the coast under proposed Harbour Revision Order powers after six years of rising costs propelled by pursuit of Port Marine Safety Code compliance. They risk driving away craft of all sizes, from kayaks to yachts, while redevelopment threatens canalside land – but it’s not too late to change course.
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Leigh Curtis is deputy editor of Exeter Observer and a director of its publisher Exeter Observer Limited.
She writes most of our community and culture stories as well as news reports and contributes to features and investigations.
Leigh holds a degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. She leads on marketing and also manages our finances and administration.
She is an accredited UK press card holder and a member of the National Union of Journalists.
Martin Redfern is Exeter Observer’s editor and a director of its publisher Exeter Observer Limited.
He writes many of our news stories and features, leads on investigations and maintains the Exeter Observer website.
Martin holds a masters degree in Journalism with distinction at Birkbeck, University of London.
He is an accredited UK press card holder and a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists and the Society of Editors.
