NEWS

Exeter In Brief - June 2023

Keeping you in touch with local news that matters.

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Exeter City Council has confirmed, in response to a freedom of information request, that it has never taken enforcement action against breaches of the ARTICLE 4 DIRECTION that is intended to prevent conversion of residential housing to HMOs in the St James area. It has also confirmed that it approved nine of fifteen applications for HMO conversion that have been made in the Article 4 direction area since it was introduced in January 2012.

MATFORD BROOK ACADEMY, a new “state of the art” Ted Wragg Trust school for 1,450 pupils of all ages intended to serve the South West Exeter extension, is now not expected to open in September because of problems with the building foundations.

A new EXMOUTH AND EAST EXETER parliamentary constituency will replace most of the current East Devon seat held by MP Simon Jupp. The changes will reduce the Exeter constituency’s size, moving its current eastern boundary westwards so all of the city’s Pinhoe, St Loye’s and Topsham council wards will fall in the new seat. Nearly 9,000 Exeter voters are affected. Simon Jupp will contest the new Honiton and Sidmouth seat that will also be created as part of the changes, which the government is expected to approve in the next four months.

A £6.4 million government grant for heat decarbonisation at RAMM and the RIVERSIDE LEISURE CENTRE is to be spent on a Riverside roof upgrade and the replacement of gas-fired boilers with air source heat pump systems at both buildings.

The £16 million MARSH BARTON railway station is to open on 4 July, six and half years later than planned.

A £190,000 HEAVITREE AND WHIPTON ACTIVE STREETS scheme trial will begin in August for up to eighteen months, the first six of which will be a statutory consultation period during which residents and organisations will be invited to comment on the scheme. Four modal filters and three bus gates will initially be employed with the aim of reducing vehicular neighbourhood through traffic and increasing active travel in the area, in which around 17,000 people live. Changes based on consultation responses may be made to the scheme layout during the trial, in which case a further six month statutory consultation begins.

City council planning committee chair Paul Knott used his casting vote to approve final plans for the 50,000m2 UNIVERSITY OF EXETER West Park redevelopment of its Clydesdale, Nash and Birks Grange Village student accommodation sites on the north west corner of Streatham campus. It will involve demolishing 30 buildings to provide more than 2,000 new student bedrooms, a net increase of nearly 1,500 on the current site provision, and will be ten times the size of the St Sidwell’s Point leisure centre. Furious local residents who say they have been stone-walled by the university during the three-year planning process were dismayed at the decision.

The same planning committee meeting also granted Exeter Golf and Country Club permission to use 17 acres of privately-owned land that is part of LUDWELL VALLEY PARK as a golf driving range to replace their existing range on the other side of Rydon Lane, which will be developed for housing. A building and car park will be constructed on the greenfield site, which will remain inaccessible to the public, and conditions will restrict its use.

Planning permission to rebuild the ROYAL CLARENCE HOTEL as residential flats with ground floor commercial units has still not been granted more than eight months after the city council approved the plans. An extended 26 May deadline to sign a s106 legal agreement requiring developer contributions to health, education and affordable housing elsewhere in the city was not met. An extended deadline for its completion has now been set at 14 July, six years and nine months after the hotel burnt down.

EXETER CITY FUTURES is to be dissolved at the end of June following the final event in its £250,000 National Lottery-funded community engagement programme. The eight-year-old company, on which the city council has spent nearly £500,000, is responsible for the redundant Net Zero Exeter 2030 plan.

A special meeting of Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee (HaTOC) is being held at County Hall on Tuesday 20 June to discuss the HEAVITREE AND WHIPTON ACTIVE STREETS trial scheme following two public consultations and extensive community engagement. The scheme proposes modal filters and bus gates aimed at reducing vehicular neighbourhood through traffic and increasing active travel in the area, in which around 17,000 people live. An online petition encouraging councillors to approve the proposals is being hosted on the county council website.

Proposals to vary a planning permission granted ten years ago to redevelop buildings on the corner of FORE STREET and WEST STREET that currently house Langans and Crankhouse Coffee to create a six storey block of thirteen flats with commercial units on the ground floor have been submitted to the city council for approval.

The city council has granted planning permission for PINHOE COMMUNITY HUB, a new building at Station Road playing fields, for the second time following the lapse of the previous permission that was granted in February 2020.

EXETER CITY LIVING is holding a public consultation on its Glasshouse Lane redevelopment plans, which have been revised following public feedback. The council-owned company is now proposing 24 housing units in a single four storey block on the south side of the site.

Exeter Estates Holdings, a property development company that is controlled by Tony Rowe, CEO and chairman of Exeter Chiefs, has withdrawn its application to demolish ST THOMAS LIBARY and replace it with a block of thirteen flats following a public outcry in reaction to the plans.

SOUTH WEST WATER owner Pennon Group has increased its shareholder dividend by nearly 11% to £112 million despite making a pre-tax loss of £8.5 million and being fined £2.15 million after pleading guilty to thirteen environmental offences committed across Devon and Cornwall. CEO Susan Davy said the company, which also owns Bristol Water, had “delivered improvements in environmental performance”.



Recent headlines
Recent headlines
Wonford Community Wellbeing Hub option seven plan crop

£1+ million for Wonford community hub project development but £7 million build finance not yet found

Proposed Heavitree Road bus lane bus priority signals

Bus corridor consultation presents more incremental changes to Exeter road network

Southgate development site heritage map

Secretary of State overturns council decision to waive Southgate site Environmental Impact Assessment

Devon County Council 2023-24 vs 2024-25 service delivery budgets bar graph

£50 million county council 2024-25 service delivery cuts concealed by £93 million costs increases

Stagecoach subsidiary operating companies 2022-23 pre-tax profits bar chart

Stagecoach South West posts largest losses in sector despite greatest growth in journey numbers

Liveable Exeter Placemaking Charter cover image

Liveable Exeter Placemaking Charter consultation skewed towards only one of five 'core tools'

Recent stories
Wonford Community Wellbeing Hub option seven plan crop

ANALYSIS  ⁄  COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

£1+ million for Wonford community hub project development but £7 million build finance not yet found

City council presented £750,000 'feasibility proposal' as progression of existing plans despite having to start again after three years to cut costs, with Exeter City Living awarded £550,000 project contract.

Proposed Heavitree Road bus lane bus priority signals

TRANSPORT & MOBILITY  ⁄  NEWS

Bus corridor consultation presents more incremental changes to Exeter road network

£2.4 million Heavitree and Pinhoe Road 'upgrades' have 'potential for an approximate four-minute journey time saving' at peak times along length of each corridor.

Southgate development site heritage map

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Secretary of State overturns council decision to waive Southgate site Environmental Impact Assessment

Proposals for up to 200 flats in high-rise tower blocks have potentially significant impacts on Exe Estuary avian flightpaths, Exeter Cathedral skyline, listed buildings and ancient city walls placing protected landscapes and heritage assets at risk.

Devon County Council 2023-24 vs 2024-25 service delivery budgets bar graph

ANALYSIS  ⁄  DEMOCRACY & GOVERNANCE

£50 million county council 2024-25 service delivery cuts concealed by £93 million costs increases

Figures essentially unaffected by budget scrutiny process during which councillors sought details of where and how cuts would fall but received few proper answers.

Stagecoach subsidiary operating companies 2022-23 pre-tax profits bar chart

ANALYSIS  ⁄  TRANSPORT & MOBILITY

Stagecoach South West posts largest losses in sector despite greatest growth in journey numbers

Lowest year on year revenue rise compounded by above average staffing costs increase as £2 bus fare cap continues to prop up passenger demand.

Liveable Exeter Placemaking Charter cover image

ANALYSIS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Liveable Exeter Placemaking Charter consultation skewed towards only one of five 'core tools'

Private developers' forum and other major components of new charter not mentioned in council communications, but transparency and new 'culture of openness' to 'help build trust in the planning system' emphasised throughout.

On Our Radar
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Empty studios at The Gorge

COMMENT  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

The Gorge stands 70% empty nearly six months after opening as mounting council tax liability looms

Council development director claims developer interest demonstrates need for co-living in Exeter but works have yet to start on all other such schemes.

Spruce Close & Celia Crescent development aerial view

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

City council approves plans for controversial greenfield site housing

Key details remain unresolved including future ownership and management of green space and public access restrictions during construction period.

Longbrook Street student accommodation block illustrative elevation

ANALYSIS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Top to bottom King Billy student block redesign waved through as minor variation to consented plans

Council throws out Design Review Panel interventions and reneges on commitment to planning committee while developers claim unauthorised destruction of protected medieval wall justified on safety grounds.

St Bridget Nurseries illustrative layout

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Judge quashes planning permission for 350 homes at St Bridget Nurseries in Old Rydon Lane

High Court judgement finds city council did not properly discharge duties or take material considerations into account, council officer seriously misled planning committee and county council failed in statutory local highway authority role.

Illustrative elevation facing St Luke's campus

NEWS  ⁄  PLANNING & PLACE

Heavitree Road police station & magistrates court redevelopment appeal dismissed

Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner and offshore development partner sent back to drawing board after attempt to overturn city council decision to refuse two huge student/co-living blocks fails.

Exeter City Council allotment fees increases 2016 to 2024 line graph

ANALYSIS  ⁄  CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT

Council plans huge allotment fees increases to claw back cash from 1,500 city gardeners and growers

Plot holders provided with incomplete picture as consultation held which does not comply with council's own charter and delayed scrutiny report that omits key survey findings suggests council aims to turn profit from allotment provision.

, updated

Spotlight
Empty studios at The Gorge

The Gorge stands 70% empty nearly six months after opening as mounting council tax liability looms

Council development director claims developer interest demonstrates need for co-living in Exeter but works have yet to start on all other such schemes.

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