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TOP STORIES
COUNCIL STUDENT ACCOMMODATION POLICY PROPOSALS OVERLOOK 50-80% OF STUDENT-OCCUPIED HOUSING STOCK
Article 4 direction & HMO SPD consultation omits key information, confuses licensing and planning matters, misrepresents NPPF requirements and proposes barely discernible changes in place of needed new Exeter Local Plan policies. Full story here.
SEND CHILDREN’S SERVICES STILL “FAILING TO DELIVER IMPROVED OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE”
Devon County Council says change is underway but parents say problems remain unresolved, not enough is being done and their views are being ignored. Full story here.
CLOSED DOORS AT COUNTY HALL FOR COUNCILLOR CONDUCT HEARINGS
A survey of local authority approaches to standards committee hearings finds Devon County Council alone in imposing private determination of conduct complaints. Full story here.
LOCAL NEWS THAT MATTERS
Our community share offer is entering its final fortnight after being extended to Sunday 2 July.
29 readers have so far invested more than £46,500 in Exeter Observer - that’s nearly two-thirds of our £75,000 investment target.
If you’ve been thinking of helping to finance our plan to publish the independent journalism Exeter needs in the community-owned newspaper it deserves, now is the perfect time to get involved.
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HMRC has given us advance assurance that our share offer is eligible for 50% tax relief, enabling you to claim half your investment back while keeping all your shares.
You can read more about our community share offer, download a PDF with full details or simply purchase your shares on our website.
EXETER IN BRIEF
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.
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 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”.
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.
ON THE AGENDA
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 three modal filters and two bus gates with the aim of 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.
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. Printed copies of its plans will also be available at the Civic Centre and in libraries until the consultation concludes on 3 July.
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.
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.
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”.
ON OUR RADAR
SATURDAY 17 TO SATURDAY 24 JUNE // EXETER QUAY & EXETER PHOENIX
Refugee Week 2023: Refugee Support Devon & Exeter Phoenix present a day of arts and crafts, live music and food plus two film screenings. More info here.
SATURDAY 15 JULY // EXETER LIBRARY
Music in the Library with the Belshaw Band: an evening of original composition from Simon Belshaw and his band. More info here.
SATURDAY 5 AUGUST // EXETER PHOENIX
Phonic Fest 2023: Exeter Phoenix is hosting a day of live music from local artists plus DJs to raise money for Phonic FM, Exeter’s community radio station. More info here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
EXETER COUNCILLOR YVONNE ATKINSON FOUND IN BREACH OF CODE OF CONDUCT BUT ESCAPES PROSECUTION
Summary of investigation related to rental property interests involving Devon & Cornwall Police and Crown Prosecution Service withheld by Devon County Council while councillor campaigned for re-election to Exeter City Council. Full story here.
UNIVERSITY COMES CLEAN ON TRUE EXETER CAMPUS STUDENT NUMBERS OVER PAST TWO DECADES
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information Act confirm between 7,500 and 12,000 more students based in city each year than university numbers suggest – until this year – with major implications for council planning policy. Full story here.
LABOUR COUNCILLORS AGAIN APPOINTED TO ALL THIRTEEN COMMITTEE CHAIRS AT ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETING
Council leader finally quits planning committee alongside other remaining Executive member but persists with secret board that enables scrutiny evasion. Full story here.
