INVEST IN LOCAL NEWS THAT MATTERS
Exeter Observer is running a community share offer to raise the investment we need to cover more of what matters and foster our city’s cultural and community life.
You can buy community shares to help finance a three year growth plan we have developed with help from Co-ops UK and the Reach Fund. Please purchase your shares via our website.
We want to build on the foundation of a comprehensive local public interest news service, expand our coverage and launch a regular print edition, publishing the independent journalism Exeter needs in the community-owned newspaper it deserves.
HMRC has given us advance assurance that our share offer is eligible for 50% tax relief under its Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, minimising risk by enabling investors to claim half their investment back while keeping all their shares. Capital gains tax and loss relief is available too.
We are also pursuing the possibility of becoming the UK’s first public interest journalism publisher to gain charitable status, blazing a trail which would confer a wide range of benefits and have a significant impact beyond revitalising Exeter’s public sphere.
You can read more about our community share offer or reply to this email with any questions you may have.
We’re also hosting a series of informal events to share our plans and invite attendees to choose the coverage expansion options they’d most like to see. Register on our website to secure a place.
We hope to hear from you soon. Together we can deliver the independent journalism Exeter needs.
TOP STORIES
CITY COUNCIL SUSTAINABLE FOOD POLICY IS A CLIMATE CRISIS RED HERRING
Proposed changes don’t apply to council meetings or most council food provision and are expected to have unquantifiably small impact while diverting resources from major decarbonisation challenges. Full story here.
DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL SOCIAL CARE CUTS TARGET HOMELESSNESS SERVICES
£1.5 million homelessness prevention service funding cut will make situation worse for people who are homeless and at risk of homelessness and is likely to cost more than it saves. Full story here.
EXETER IN BRIEF
The window to register to vote for this year’s Exeter LOCAL ELECTIONS closes at midnight on Monday 17 April. Thirteen city councillors among 55 candidates will be chosen to serve four year terms on Thursday 4 May. All those who wish to vote in person will, for the first time, be required to show photo ID. The deadline for postal vote applications is 5pm on 18 April.
DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL will begin works to reintroduce two-way motor vehicle traffic and reduce pedestrian capacity between Paul Street and Northernhay Street in Queen Street on 17 April.
Junior doctors at the ROYAL DEVON NHS TRUST are striking over pay from 11-15 April alongside British Medical Association colleagues across the country. Emergency, critical, neonatal and other care services will continue during the strike and patients should attend scheduled appointments unless they hear otherwise.
A woman was sexually assaulted in LUDWELL VALLEY PARK between 2-4pm on Sunday 9 April. Anyone who may have relevant information or CCTV footage is asked to contact Devon & Cornwall Police quoting reference 50230081217.
MARSH BARTON RAILWAY STATION is now not expected to open until the summer following more project completion delays.
Exeter Estates Holdings has published plans to demolish ST THOMAS LIBARY and replace it with a block of thirteen flats. The company, which is also developing a 60-acre predominantly greenfield site on the edge of Exeter, is controlled by Tony Rowe, CEO and chairman of Exeter Chiefs, who has a range of property development interests in and around the city. It claims the library plans to relocate but Devon County Council and service provider Libraries Unlimited both say they intend to stay in the building.
The EXETER WORKS employment advice hub that replaced the Princesshay tourist information office has closed in favour of online-only service provision. The county council Devon Youth Hub service, which was previously co-located with the service, has moved to Exeter Library.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL will not now be able to increase council tax charges on hundreds of empty and second or holiday homes in the city until April 2025 following delays with the government’s Levelling Up & Regeneration Bill, which provides for the introduction of the new charges.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL has granted planning permission for controversial developments of 350 dwellings at St Bridget horticulture nursery on Old Rydon Lane and 182 dwellings at Aldens Farm West, part of the predominantly greenfield 90 hectare South West Exeter extension of 2,500 new homes that stretches from Alphington to the M5. Both developments were widely opposed because of prospective traffic impacts.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL has postponed a major review of its governance – which was already six months late – for the sixth time, and now won’t address the issues it raises until the end of July.
EXETER PRIDE has cancelled this year’s LGBTQ+ celebration, which was scheduled for 13 May, due to a lack of volunteer co-ordinators and stewards to enable the event to go ahead safely.
EXETER CITY COUNCIL has sold former the Pyramids swimming pool site to The Guinness Partnership, which also owns the adjacent Eaton Drive/Eaton House complex, for redevelopment.
EXETER OBSERVER COMMUNITY
HELP HOLD EXETER’S POLITICAL PARTIES TO ACCOUNT DURING THE LOCAL ELECTIONS
Send us any campaign materials you receive so we can factcheck candidates’ claims and hold them to their pledges after the votes have been counted. More details here.
ON THE AGENDA
A new application to redevelop PATERNOSTER HOUSE at the corner of Fore Street and North Street has been submitted a fortnight before previously-granted permission to convert the former department store into flats expired on 22 March. The building is currently owned by property developer Grenadier, part of the Oxygen House group of companies which is also responsible for Exeter City Futures.
A public consultation on a DEVON, CORNWALL & ISLES OF SCILLY CLIMATE ADAPTATION PLAN which will attempt to minimise the impact of climate change on the South West peninsula will be held from 8 May before a final version is adopted during the autumn, four and a half years after Devon County Council convened the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group to “act now to tackle [the] climate emergency”.
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.
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.
ON OUR RADAR
SUNDAY 16 APRIL // MAKETANK
A Ukrainian Orthodox Easter celebration with art and craft activities, Pysanky egg decoration and traditional song. More info here.
SATURDAY 29 APRIL // SIDWELL STREET BAKEHOUSE
Not Saints/Together open mic night: a free evening of music, poetry and comedy in an inclusive, safe and sober space. More info here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
DECLINE IN EXETER ECONOMIC ACTIVITY LEVELS AMONG LARGEST IN COUNTRY
Census figures also show population increasing at nearly six times rate of job creation over past decade while healthcare, wholesale/retail and teaching make up nearly half of all employment, reflecting low pay and productivity. Full story here.
FUTURE OF DEVON BUS SERVICES BEING DECIDED BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Devon County Council does not want the public to hear whether local service improvements are going according to plan. Full story here.
