Pre-application exhibition of plans for a 164-bed “co-living” block on SUMMERLAND STREET will take place from 11am-4pm on Friday 3 March at the former windscreen repair business in the centre of the redevelopment site, which includes Yonk Asian Foods and Sai Kung supermarket.
Instead of varying its EXETER CITY LIVING management agreement to allow the council-owned company to submit its 2023-24 business plan five months late – a fortnight after the financial year to which it applies begins – as agreed in January, the city council has now decided not to set a deadline for its submission at all.
Revised proposals for a student/co-living complex on the site of HEAVITREE ROAD POLICE STATION AND MAGISTRATES’ COURT were rejected at a council planning committee meeting on 20 February. The scheme’s eighth design iteration provided 955 rooms at “optimum density”, 89 fewer than before, and slightly reduced building heights and footprints from the previous version. An appeal against the decision is expected after the May local elections.
Exeter City Council approved EXETER COLLEGE plans to erect floodlights and a three metre fence around a new artificial pitch at Flowerpot Fields at the same meeting despite widespread objections to its original plans. Its revised plans addressed some, but not all, of the issues raised.
Simon Jupp has been selected to stand in the new HONITON & SIDMOUTH constituency which will replace the East Devon seat he currently holds for the Conservatives at the next general election.
A 30 year-old man from Exmouth has been charged with the murder of a 74 year-old woman from Exeter in LUDWELL VALLEY PARK following his arrest Exeter High Street on 18 February. Members of the public who may have information that could assist in the investigation are asked to contact Devon & Cornwall Police.
Plans for an ultra-high density build-to-rent development at HAVEN BANKS have been revised to rely on a Welcome Street bridge being built over the railway in response to Environment Agency flood risk objections.
EXETER CHIEFS rugby club has applied to vary a planning restriction imposed when it was granted permission to double the capacity of its Sandy Park stadium in 2012 which currently prevents its use as a music or performance venue. The application follows the approval of a licensing variation to allow its use as a venue for boxing, wrestling, theatre, film and music events on 30 January.
PINHOE COMMUNITY HUB has resubmitted its application for a new building at Station Road playing fields following the lapse of the previous permission, granted three years ago.
The prison inspectorate published a damning report on 16 February into what it called “shocking standards” at EXETER PRISON after issuing a second consecutive urgent notification for the prison – the first time it has done so. The prison has the highest rates of self-harm in the country, with 26 suicides in recent years, high levels of violence, very poor conditions and multiple leadership failures. The previous urgent notification concerning conditions in the prison was sent to the justice secretary in 2018.
Works at controversial Gladstone Road co-living block THE GORGE have resumed, with the project not now due for completion until the end of the year.
SOUTH WEST WATER is consulting on its draft Water Resources Management Plan, which sets out how it intends to ensure a secure regional water supply and manage its environmental impact, until 19 May.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL has confirmed that its food waste collections now cover 10.9% of the city’s residential addresses. Coverage is expected to reach 16.9% from early March with further expansion aiming at 35% coverage by the end of May, seven years after the collections were promised.
Another 100 new homes will be built in the TOPSHAM GAP beside Clyst Road after the developer successfully appealed against the council’s planning permission refusal. The same developer also won an appeal against council refusal of 155 homes and a 64-bed care home on an adjacent site in 2019.
The budget for the EXETER CITY LIVING Vaughan Road redevelopment has soared from £9.2 million to £27.2 million, with the council now expected to lend an additional £13 million to its development company to complete what will now be a mix of 35 affordable and 56 market rent flats, 25 fewer affordable homes than planned.
The UNIVERSITY OF EXETER has twice refused to identify the members of its community engagement panel or residents liaison group under Freedom of Information legislation and is being referred to the Information Commissioner for failing to do so.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL has approved plans to replace Buckerell Lodge with a retirement home, deferred a decision on a development of 350 dwellings at St Bridget horticulture nursery on Old Rydon Lane and refused a 26-bed student accommodation block on Howell Road.
EXETER LABOUR proposals to spend £100,000 on a splash pool in St Thomas, a marginal ward in which the council’s deputy leader nearly lost her seat at last year’s local elections, has led city council news coverage of a budget which cuts more than £3 million of public spending.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL has approved the use of Exeter Chiefs’ Sandy Park stadium as a venue for boxing, wrestling, theatre, film and music events.
DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL is consulting on its draft proposals for adult social care provision until 19 March.
Royal College of Nursing staff at the ROYAL DEVON NHS TRUST resumed strike action on 6 February alongside South Western Ambulance Service workers as healthcare professionals across the country stage the biggest strike in NHS history.
Detailed plans for the Honiton Road MOOR EXCHANGE RETAIL PARK have been submitted for approval. Outline planning permission for the development was granted two years ago.
The police inspectorate says DEVON AND CORNWALL POLICE must make urgent improvements after it was found to be inadequate in three of nine areas including responding to emergency and non-emergency calls and managing registered sexual and violent offenders.
Its assessment found two other areas required improvement while two more were graded “good”. A new chief constable was appointed in December after the force was placed under enhanced inspectorate monitoring last year.
DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL is consulting on its draft Exeter Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, which is already nearly six years late, until the end of March. Public exhibitions take place from 11am-7pm on 14-15 February and 15-16 March at County Hall.
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER staff resumed strike action over pay, pensions and working conditions on 1 February alongside Exeter school teaching staff with dozens more strike days planned during February and March.
EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL has granted planning permission for 44 new dwellings and 6,000m2 of new office space beside Exeter Science Park.
