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THE EXETER DIGEST

Exeter Digest #23: Devon children’s services failings - Exeter empty and second homes

Get up to speed with our new Exeter In Brief coverage, find out about ongoing local consultations and get ready to celebrate Phonic FM’s 15th birthday.

TOP STORIES

DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL CHARGED WITH “RELENTLESS INSTITUTIONAL FAILINGS” IN SEND CHILDREN’S SERVICES PROVISION

Children with special educational needs and disabilities protest alongside parents at County Hall as Ofsted monitoring continues to find serious unresolved issues and key areas that require significant change.

EXETER HAS MORE EMPTY AND SECOND HOMES THAN BUILT IN CITY IN PAST TWO YEARS

Council tax premium proposals that aim to raise additional revenue from underused housing stock might also encourage return to residential occupancy.

EXETER IN BRIEF

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

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.

Royal College of Nursing staff at the ROYAL DEVON NHS TRUST have resumed strike action 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.

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER staff have resumed strike action over pay, pensions and working conditions 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.

EXETER CITY FUTURES published the agenda for its last board meeting on 30 January, two months after the meeting was held. It says it is “committed to being completely transparent and open about the things that are discussed at board meetings”. No minutes were included.

New figures show that 2.2 million people used EXETER CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION in the year to March 2022, making it the 155th busiest of 2,569 UK railway stations and (slightly) busier than Exeter St David’s.

The opening of MARSH BARTON RAILWAY STATION has been delayed yet again, to “this spring”, putting project completion more than six years behind schedule.

More Exeter In Brief here.

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ON THE AGENDA

DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL is consulting on its draft proposals for adult social care provision until 19 March.

DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL is also 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.

ON OUR RADAR

FRIDAY 17 FEBRUARY // EXETER CLIMATE ACTION HUB

A free screening of The Oil Machine followed by a panel discussion led by Dr James Dyke of the University of Exeter Global Systems Institute.

SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY // EXETER PHOENIX

Phonic FM, Exeter’s community radio station, celebrates fifteen years of broadcasting with an evening of live music and DJs.

TUESDAY 14 MARCH // ST NICHOLAS PRIORY

An evening talk, The Forgotten Quarter, explores the Mint Lane area between the first and second world wars.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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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More stories
Exeter College and Petroc campuses map

Exeter College and Petroc merger set to create largest college group in South West

Colleges hold public consultation on creation of new organisation which they say would educate 16,000 students at Exeter and North Devon campuses and employ 2,000 staff with £100 million turnover.

Proposed Clarendon House student block aerial view

Proposals to replace Clarendon House with 297-bed student accommodation complex submitted for approval

Developer Zinc Real Estate arrives at final proposal for up to ten storey Paris Street roundabout redevelopment after nearly two years of informal public consultations and meetings with city councillors and officers.

Nadder Park Road application site location map

Barley Lane greenfield plans place persistent threat to Exeter’s north and north-west hills in spotlight

Council inability to identify sufficient land to meet government housing delivery targets leaves residents with faint hope of local plan policies preventing Nadder Park Road ridgeline development despite 175 public objections to scheme.

Exeter City Council 2024-25 unaudited statement of accounts cover image

Unaudited 2024-25 city council accounts published for annual inspection period

Special information access rights enabling residents to examine records apply until 6 October after asset revaluation delayed publication from 1 July to 26 August.

Illustrative elevation of proposed student block in Summerland Street, Exeter

Pre-application feedback sought on proposals for six storey Summerland Street student accommodation block

Redevelopment of Unit 1 nightclub and Best Tyre Auto Centre in Verney Street would add 180 beds to 1,575 student bedspaces in immediate area on top of 145 studios in consented but unbuilt Summerland Street “co-living” block.

, updated

Former Bramdean School playing field

McCarthy Stone set to build 36 retirement flats on Heavitree school playing field

Proposals prompting concerns about loss of green space and adverse impact on historic character of conservation area follow redevelopment of former Bramdean School in Homefield Road.

On Our Radar
Burnet Patch Bridge spanning an eighteenth century cut in Exeter City Walls

FRIDAY 12 TO SUNDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2025

Heritage Open Days 2025

Annual festival returns with free talks, tours and exhibitions at heritage sites in and around Exeter.

EXETER CITY CENTRE

Exeter Phoenix building

FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER TO SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2025

Exeter Contemporary Open 2025

Annual exhibition featuring fifteen contemporary visual artists from across the UK.

EXETER PHOENIX

St Sidwell's Community Centre supper dish

SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2025

Sid’s Supper Fundraiser

Community centre hosts locally-sourced seasonal three-course meal to help improve café facilities.

ST SIDWELL'S COMMUNITY CENTRE