NEWS

Exeter In Brief - May 2023

Keeping you in touch with local news that matters.

Exeter city council Local elections Devon carbon plan Planning policy Student accommodation Cycling & walking Exeter transport strategy Co-living Public parks University of exeter South west water Devon county council Libraries unlimited Exeter chiefs

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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.

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.

MAGDALEN ROAD is expected to reopen on Saturday 27 May following pavement widening and its permanent conversion to one-way traffic at a cost of £1 million.

TOPSHAM LIBRARY is to move to a smaller upstairs space following a proposed rent increase for its current ground floor accommodation at Nancy Potter House. The library will close on 12 June and reopen on 27 June, and will be accessible via a lift.

EXETER CITY COUNCIL has promoted its ranking in a “Good Growth for Cities” accountancy firm report despite the report finding that Exeter’s economy is expected to contract significantly during 2023. The council neither mentions that it is the third worst performing city among the 50 surveyed nor provides a link to the report, which the council leader welcomed.

Industry regulator Ofwat has launched an enforcement investigation into SOUTH WEST WATER leakage performance reporting, the accuracy of which has been in doubt following a November 2022 Ofwat assessment of the company’s progress in this area.

A Higher Education Policy Institute report has found that the 2021-22 cohort of 1,285 first-year Exeter INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS brought £140.7 million in net benefits to the UK economy, primarily in the form of tuition fees, accommodation provision and living costs and visitor expenditure. Exeter international student numbers have increased by 20% in the past two years.

PENINSULA TRANSPORT has published a South West transport decarbonisation strategy which hopes to reduce the 4.4 million tCO2e of greenhouse gas emissions the region’s transport currently generates each year. Current policy is only expected to address one quarter of the total by 2050.

An application to construct a 167-bed seven storey co-living block in SUMMERLAND STREET is expected to reignite controversy around Exeter City Council allowing the use of its land to provide “student accommodation in all but name”.

DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL has approved a £1.7 million 700 metre two-way segregated cycling scheme in Rifford Road to form part of the E12 north/south cycle route between Honiton Road and Ludwell Lane.

EXETER CITY COUNCIL is inviting reactions to its proposed amendments to its existing planning policy restrictions on the conversion of residential housing to multiple occupancy dwellings, frequently lived by students, near the university. There are exhibitions from 1-7pm on Wednesday 7 June at Exeter Guildhall, 1.30-7pm on Tuesday 13 June at Newtown Community Centre in Belmont Park and 1-7pm on Tuesday 20 June at St James Church Hall in Mount Pleasant Road. Printed copies of its plans will also be available at the Civic Centre and in libraries until the consultation concludes on 3 July.

The UNIVERSITY OF EXETER is inviting local residents to express their views on the future of Lower Hoopern Valley. Potential uses for the 38 acre mix of pasture and woodland through which Taddiford Brooke passes are a carbon sequestration and storage facility and a research resource which may involve the construction of buildings on the site. The consultation runs to 26 May.

A public consultation on a draft DEVON, CORNWALL AND ISLES OF SCILLY CLIMATE ADAPTATION STRATEGY which will attempt to minimise the impact of climate change on the South West peninsula is under way until 30 June. The full draft strategy is here. Publication of a revised, final version of the plan is expected in August before partnership organisations will be invited to endorse it 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”.

The 2023 LOCAL ELECTIONS took place on 4 May. 55 polling stations across Exeter opened from 7am to 10pm to enable the city’s electors to choose thirteen people to represent them on the city council, one in each electoral ward. For the first time voters were required to produce an accepted form of photo ID to cast their ballot in person.

A large fire broke out at EXTON ROAD RECYCLING CENTRE in Marsh Barton on 29 April which took fire crews three hours to extinguish. Four appliances were needed to deal with the fire including an aerial ladder platform. Its cause was the accidental ignition of four tonnes of mixed recycling waste in a lorry trailer.


Recent headlines
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St Petrocks homelessness charity Christmas appeal 2023

St Petrock's Christmas appeal to raise funds to support its work with rough sleepers

Exeter area bus services trends map

Exeter bus services cut by nearly 42% since 2010, largest fall in area

University of Exeter St Luke's campus boundary aerial view

University seeks views on St Luke's campus redevelopment

Clifton Hill sports centre development site

Clifton Hill sports centre site - with adjacent green space - and Mary Arches car park set for sale for PBSA

Sandy Park stadium

City council gives Exeter Chiefs permission to hold Sandy Park concerts with 15,500 attendees

Recent stories
St Petrocks homelessness charity Christmas appeal 2023

COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

St Petrock's Christmas appeal to raise funds to support its work with rough sleepers

Exeter homelessness charity's fundraising campaign features short film exploring how it feels to be homeless.

Exeter area bus services trends map

TRANSPORT & MOBILITY

Exeter bus services cut by nearly 42% since 2010, largest fall in area

Many of worst-affected neighbourhoods in areas where major developments planned or being built, some in Heavitree & Whipton Active Streets trial area.

University of Exeter St Luke's campus boundary aerial view

PLANNING & PLACE

University seeks views on St Luke's campus redevelopment

Eleven acre teaching and research site between Heavitree Road and Magdalen Road to become 'health and wellbeing' campus and may include student accommodation.

Clifton Hill sports centre development site

PLANNING & PLACE

Clifton Hill sports centre site - with adjacent green space - and Mary Arches car park set for sale for PBSA

Reversal of policy to prohibit Purpose Built Student Accommodation on city council land proposed to cover expected £9 million outstanding Exeter City Living debt, with £800,000 budget proposed for site disposal costs.

Sandy Park stadium

ECONOMY & ENTERPRISE

City council gives Exeter Chiefs permission to hold Sandy Park concerts with 15,500 attendees

Permanent consent for six weekend events between 1 May and 15 July each year with amplified music to 10.30pm follows four trial concerts with audiences of just 3,500.

On Our Radar
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Illustrative elevations facing Cowley Bridge Road

PLANNING & PLACE

City council approves Cowley Bridge Road student blocks on former Johnsons site

350 bedspaces in four blocks up to six storeys tall to be built on windfall site left vacant after 2020 fire at former laundry and workwear factory.

University of Exeter social mobility awards graphic

ANALYSIS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

University of Exeter promotes social mobility 'silver awards' after being ranked 92nd in HEPI index

Higher Education Policy Institute social mobility ranking follows landmark study placing university 103rd in higher education social mobility league table, while South West young people are least likely to attend university in the country.

Exeter housing

ANALYSIS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

Exeter has 3,100 vacant and empty second homes, nearly 6% of city's housing stock

ONS also finds South West has 183,000 unoccupied dwellings with another 200,000 in use as second homes in the region, of which more than 4,000 are in Exeter, as statutory homelessness increases and rough sleeping doubles in city.

JCDecaux illuminated street advertising screen

PLANNING & PLACE

Planning inspectors uphold decisions to refuse illuminated city centre advertising screens

Appeal dismissals conclude JCDecaux 'multifunction hubs' would materially harm character, appearance and visual amenity and have 'very limited' benefits in Sidwell Street, Paris Street and South Street with High Street hub decision to follow.

Seabrook Orchards phase three illustration

PLANNING & PLACE

Seabrook Orchards development plans submitted one house short of key planning condition threshold

Residents group says Bloor Homes application does not address pedestrian and cycle connectivity and is 'seeking to actively avoid delivery' of agreed transport infrastructure.

Maketank window display

COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

Maketank community arts centre closes after more than four years at the heart of Exeter cultural life

Crown Estate unwilling to renew lease after problems with roof preclude repairs in block scheduled for demolition as part of CityPoint redevelopment.

Spotlight
New Exeter local plan graphic

City council holds consultation on full draft of new Exeter Local Plan, set to guide development to 2040

Second major consultation begins as government introduces sweeping national planning system reforms including transfer of powers to Whitehall and changes to scope of local plans and local plan-making processes.

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