NEWS  ⁄  CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT

Council reveals plan for "Pods in Exeter's Sky" to beat city congestion

Exeter City Futures proposal connects key city sites with a network of Alpine-style cable cars as an alternative to traffic improvement measures.

Exeter city council  Devon county council  Exeter city futures  Exeter transport strategy  Liveable exeter  Exeter development fund 

Exeter City Council has announced an ambitious plan for a network of Alpine-style cable cars to connect key city sites as an alternative to traffic improvement measures.

Developed by Exeter City Futures, the council’s vehicle for high-concept solutions to the city’s congestion challenges, the plan would see pods carrying up to 30 people each travelling above the streets suspended from cables.

The council said the network of Pods in Exeter’s Sky will extend the city’s Liveable Exeter garden communities brand concept to include its “cheeky little hills”.

The cable car network will boast two lines. The first will run from St David’s station to the new bus station via New North Road, with stops at the Clock Tower and the prison. A second line, referred to as BS2, will start at the bus station and terminate at Whipton & Pinhoe Labour club.

Stops will take the form of fixed covered platforms at cable level linked to the street by lifts.

The first line is expected to open to passengers in 2032. Final costs have yet to be revealed but a consultant working for Exeter City Futures was confident that the project could be delivered for “somewhere around £1 billion, with no risk at all to the council’s finances”.

Exeter Live Better sugarloaf cable car The network of Pods in Exeter’s Sky will extend the city’s Liveable Exeter garden communities brand concept to include its “cheeky little hills”. Photo: Diego Baravelli under Creative Commons license.

A council spokesperson said: “Exeter is a world-class city that needs a world-class public transport system. After decades of inaction by Devon County Council, the so-called local transport authority, it’s time for the people of Exeter to let rhetoric go to their heads.

“Liveable Exeter is more than just a property development programme. At its heart it is about community, well being and gambling with public land and money.

“Exeter City Council is about to open a swimming pool which cost the city just £44 million. St Sidwell’s Point demonstrates that money is no object when delivering the world-class facilities demanded by Exeter residents.

“The same community-driven value for money approach has been applied to this exciting new transport project, which will make a major contribution to achieving the city’s net zero 2030 target while generating untold economic benefits for the area.

“It is the perfect sustainable transport solution for Exeter, even though nobody had heard about it before today, and will provide the infrastructure needed to attract wealthy incomers from the South East and improve their quality of life.”

Liveable Exeter garden city Alpine extension

The council is planning a special season of musicals to promote the new cable car network, with tie-ins to established Exeter attractions. Image: ClaraDon under Creative Commons license.

Council leader Phil Bialyk said: “Exeter City Futures has helped the Labour-led city council understand that the way to get things done in Exeter is to deliver the Conservative government’s policies.

“Inspired by the hugely successful Thames cable car crossing, we’ve been working behind the scenes for nearly five years to bring this idea to fruition.

“Exeter residents will be given ample opportunity to have their say about our plans, kicking off with a public consultation inviting people to name each of the pods after their favourite pie.

“Pasties will be prohibited because of their links with Cornwall.”

A spokesperson for Exeter City Futures said: “Exeter has a vision for growth as a cable car-connected city of thriving communities linked by high wires in an exceptional setting.

“Working in close collaboration with unaccountable partners the council will create a world-class urban cable car network guided by Alpine garden city principles.

“Liveable Exeter Place Board approved the plans on behalf of the city last year. Councillors will be invited to rubber stamp the board’s decision at a later date.

“Project delivery is expected to begin shortly, with the necessary Transport & Works Act order to be confirmed by 1 April 2023.”


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SOUTH WEST WATER owner Pennon Group has increased its shareholder dividend by nearly 11% to £112 million despite making a pre-tax loss of £8.5 million and being fined £2.15 million after pleading guilty to thirteen environmental offences committed across Devon and Cornwall. CEO Susan Davy said the company, which also owns Bristol Water, had “delivered improvements in environmental performance”

EXETER CITY COUNCIL member’s allowances and expenses came to a total of £409,000 in the year to March 2023, with council leader Phil Bialyk claiming £28,400 and receiving gifts and hospitality at Sandy Park stadium.

The city council has agreed to allow four music concerts at SANDY PARK STADIUM in June with up to 15,000 people in attendance, tickets for which have already been on sale for two months. Its planning committee heard accounts of extreme anti-social behaviour by visitors attending events at the venue as well as other adverse impacts on local residents and imposed traffic and parking, noise, litter and opening and closing time restrictions on the concerts.

An Ofsted monitoring report on DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL CHILDREN’S SERVICES, the fifth since the local authority was judged inadequate in January 2020, has found that the “quality of social work practice across Devon remains inconsistent”. Inspectors found “pockets of better practice” and “some positive changes” but said that weak management oversight, insufficient challenge and poor care planning all continue to cause problems. It also said a high turnover rate in agency social work staff, who make up more than 40% of the workforce, is having an adverse impact.

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