Exeter Digest #31: Leisure services overspend - Water Lane site access

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EXETER IN BRIEF

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.

ON THE AGENDA

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 Monday.

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.

ON OUR RADAR

TUESDAY 11 JULY // EXETER PHOENIX

Food on Film presents Food for Thought, a documentary about meat and dairy farming in Cornwall with plant-based food tasting and panel discussion. 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

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.