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THE EXETER DIGEST

Exeter Digest #22: Community infrastructure levy review - Student numbers - County council spending

The first edition of 2023 also introduces our new Exeter In Brief section and trails PRISM Exeter LGBTQIA+ speakers, a free documentary film screening and Exeter’s first seed swap.

TOP STORIES

COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT LEVY CHANGES ARE INSUFFICIENTLY EVIDENCED AND DON’T MEET CITY INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS

Exeter City Council and Liveable Exeter partners impose faulty typology driven by policy objectives while ignoring new local plan, evidence base and statutory funding statement and excluding residential and retail charges from review.

30,000 STUDENTS BASED AT EXETER UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES IN 2022-23

Freedom of information request reveals significant drop on last year with postgraduate students accounting for 58% of fall in numbers.

UNDERPERFORMING COUNTY COUNCIL CHILDREN’S SERVICES TO RECEIVE NEARLY HALF OF PROPOSED SPENDING INCREASES

Details of simultaneous £50 million 2023-24 spending reductions not yet published as finance director cites service delivery “re-prioritisation”.

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EXETER IN BRIEF

A selection from our new home page section keeping you up to speed with local news that matters:

EXETER CHIEFS rugby club has reintroduced its offensive “tomahawk chop” chant during games at Sandy Park, where it is being played over the PA system, despite seeking to rehabilitate its reputation after a long-running controversy over its misappropriation of indigenous and Native American imagery.

Meanwhile the club’s application to EXETER CITY COUNCIL to vary the stadium’s license to enable it to become a music venue as well as host to boxing, wrestling, theatre and films is to be decided at a meeting on Monday 30 January.

The UNIVERSITY OF EXETER has submitted detailed plans for its 1,700 bed West Park redevelopment of 50,000m2 of student accommodation. They include ten storey blocks which are two storeys taller than agreed when outline permission was granted in May 2021.

EXETER CITY COUNCIL has again breached local government transparency legislation by failing to give required notice of its intention to hold an Executive meeting in private.

Contractors have pulled out of controversial Gladstone Road co-living block THE GORGE, leaving works stalled.

Devon LEVELLING-UP round two funding has been announced, with Exmouth Gateway and a maritime research centre in Appledore to receive £16 million each and £13.5 million for a new railway station on the eastern edge of Okehampton to be called Okehampton Parkway.

EXETER CITY COUNCIL has collected thousands of council tax payments that were due on 25 January nine days early. It has refunded the payments and confirmed it will reimburse those who have incurred bank charges as a result of its error on application.

EXETER CITY COUNCIL has cancelled a planning committee meeting that was expected to approve controversial developments including 350 dwellings at St Bridget horticulture nursery on Old Rydon Lane and a 26-bed student accommodation block on Howell Road after failing to inform objectors that the meeting was taking place.

DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL approved revised proposals to make active travel infrastructure in Queen Street permanent at a meeting on 16 January. They include a reduction in footway width and increase in carriageway width, compared with previous proposals, to enable the reintroduction of two-way motor traffic. The revised scheme does not provide any cycling infrastructure but does include a new loading bay which will be set into the pavement.

The same meeting approved a 700-metre £1.55 million cycling infrastructure scheme on Rifford Road. It will not impede motor vehicle movement but will entail the removal of sixteen parking spaces.

LIBRARIES UNLIMITED has become the latest local organisation to launch a lottery in order to raise funds for public service delivery.

EXETER CITY LIVING is consulting on proposals to redevelop the Exe Water Sports Association site at the head of Exeter Ship Canal, which includes the Ride On headquarters and the boat yard. Responses are invited until 27 January.

Proposals to convert a 3,000m2 five storey office block on New North Road known as BEAUFORT HOUSE to a 107-bed student accommodation facility have been submitted to the city council for approval.

More Exeter In Brief here.

ON OUR RADAR

MONDAY 13 FEBRUARY // EXETER LIBRARY

PRISM Exeter’s speaker series continues with LGBTQIA+ people sharing their experiences working in STEMM as part of this year’s LGBT+ History Month.

FRIDAY 17 FEBRUARY // EXETER CLIMATE ACTION HUB

A free screening of The Oil Machine followed by a panel discussion with Dr James Dyke and Professor Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter Global Systems Institute.

SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY // MAKETANK

Exeter Seed Bank’s first seed swap also features talks on composting, fermentation and reducing kitchen waste with stalls, displays and activities.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

IS THE GRASS REALLY GREENER IN EXETER CITY CENTRE?

Academic research placing Exeter retail area at top of green space table was nationally reported, locally misrepresented then repurposed as booster fuel by local politicians overlooking study’s social justice focus.

COUNCIL LOTTERY OPERATOR TO TAKE CUT FROM LOCAL CHARITABLE DONATIONS

Decision to promote gambling as “incentivised giving” plays down risks without assessing potential impacts or evidencing claimed benefits, disrupting relationships between community and voluntary sector organisations and supporters.

EXETER CITY FUTURES FALSELY CLAIMS DEVELOPMENT FUND DOCUMENTS DISCLOSED UNDER FOI LEGISLATION

Senior council director puts company on collision course with Information Commissioner’s Office as significant governance failings emerge after councillors and public kept in dark over Liveable Exeter financing scheme proposals.

SOUTH WEST WATER PERFORMANCE REMAINS AMONG WORST IN SECTOR AS IT FALLS FURTHER BEHIND TARGETS

Regulator highlights “sustained poor performance” after serious pollution incidents nearly triple and Environment Agency condemns company in annual assessment.

EXETER CITY LIVING PUT COUNCIL AT “SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL RISK” AFTER £2.2 MILLION LOSS IN FIRST TWO YEARS

Missing business plan, lack of transparency and conflicts of interest among senior council directors prompt board resignations and governance review at council-owned and funded company.

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER LAGS BEHIND ON FEMALE PAY AND EMPLOYMENT TERMS

HESA figures show poor performance compared with Universities UK members and only incremental changes over past five years, mostly since staff began industrial action over pay, pensions and working conditions.

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More stories
Illustrative view of proposed co-living blocks from Heavitree Road

Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended

Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre.

Boneyard arcade games

Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search

Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for “co-living” block at previous Red Lion Lane location.

Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

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.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

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.

On Our Radar
Jo Eades

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025

Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025

Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam.

EXETER PHOENIX

Carmen with rose graphic

SATURDAY 8 & SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025

Carmen

Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.

EXETER CASTLE

Exeter Philharmonic Choir

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2025

The Weather Book

Exeter Philharmonic Choir performs a new weather-inspired work plus pieces by Brahms, Poulenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

EXETER CATHEDRAL