Exeter Digest #33: Duryard Valley solar farm - Climate Action Hub under threat

EXETER IN BRIEF

DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL has paused its plans to cut a £1.5 million homelessness prevention budget following a campaign led by YMCA Exeter. It intends to reconsider its approach, which prompted widespread criticism from district councils, local charities, homelessness prevention service providers and the public, before making a decision about the future of the funding in December.

Climate activists drilled holes in all four of the tyres of more than 60 SUVs parked at a Jaguar dealership in Matford during the early hours of Monday 7 August. TYRE EXTINGUISHERS, an international direct action network which opposes the use of SUVs in towns and cities, later issued a statement saying the destruction was a response to a Land Rover SUV crashing into a school and killing two children on 6 July.

The government has confirmed that the HEART OF THE SOUTH WEST LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP will be wound up alongside the other 35 LEPs that were created in 2011, following the abolition of regional development agencies, to drive regional economic development via infrastructure development and skills training. Its assets and functions are to be transferred to Devon County Council, or a new Devon combined authority should current negotiations result in one, from April next year.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY plans to shut all its ticket offices by the end of next year, including those at Exeter Central and Exeter St David’s, have received a near-universally hostile reception. Despite belatedly extending a consultation on the closures from three to eight weeks, the company apparently remains unconcerned for the future of in-person ticket sales. Its own figures show that 45% of sales at Barnstaple, 41% at Paignton and 34% at Dawlish are made this way. At Exeter Central the figure is 18% and at Exeter St David’s 12%, which is still higher than many other major GWR stations including Bristol and Oxford.

Councillors are threatening to “empty chair” STAGECOACH SOUTH WEST managing director Peter Knight after his absence from yet another meeting of the committee that oversees Exeter’s highways. Led by Labour’s Martin Pearce, they stressed the importance of a direct link between the bus operator and elected members. A county council officer fanned the flames by explaining that Mr Knight now regularly attends the county’s new bus users and stakeholders forum – which meets in secret – leading councillors to demand wider access to that body in the interests of accountability and transparency. The issue will be referred to the October meeting of the council’s DevonBus Enhanced Partnership Board.

DEVON & CORNWALL POLICE chief constable Will Kerr has been suspended by Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez following misconduct allegations eight months after he was appointed to lead the force, which was placed under enhanced inspectorate monitoring by the police inspectorate last year. The Independent Office for Police Conduct will now investigate.

A two month public consultation on the 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 only received just over 200 responses from the 1.75 million people who live in the region. 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”.

Liberal Democrat Tiverton & Honiton MP Richard Foord has announced he will stand against Conservative East Devon MP Simon Jupp in the new HONITON & SIDMOUTH seat at the next general election. Major boundary changes mean both Tiverton & Honiton and East Devon constituencies are being scrapped. A new Exmouth and East Exeter seat is also being created, where David Reed will stand for the Conservatives.

Devon County Council has postponed its plans to increase the speed limit along the length of EXWICK ROAD from Redhills to Station Road, and to extend the increase along St Andrew’s Road, after admitting that public consultation responses to its plans had gone missing. The council is justifying the changes, which would also introduce new on-road parking restrictions, on the grounds they would improve road safety and reduce congestion.

ON OUR RADAR

THURSDAY 10 AUGUST // NORTHERNHAY GARDENS

Six multi-instrumentalists tell the story of stranded lovers Hero & Leander through folk and indie songs, choral music and sea shanties. More details here.

FRIDAY 11 AUGUST // NORTHERNHAY GARDENS

Spork! summer special: an evening of al fresco spoken-word comedy and poetry with Jonny Fluffypunk, Jackie Juno, Just Some Guy and Muneera Pilgrim. More details here.

SATURDAY 12 AUGUST // NORTHERNHAY GARDENS

Two performances of Out of the Deep Blue by Autin Dance Theatre that combine dance, movement and puppetry to explore the climate and biodiversity crises. More details here.

ON THE AGENDA

The HEAVITREE AND WHIPTON ACTIVE STREETS scheme trial has begun. The first six months, to 2 February 2024, are a statutory consultation period during which residents and organisations are invited to comment on the scheme. Modal filters and bus gates will initially be employed in five locations with the aim of reducing motor vehicle through traffic and increasing cycling and walking 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, which will run for up to eighteen months, in which case a further six month statutory consultation would begin.

EXETER CITY COUNCIL is inviting comments on its draft digital customer service strategy, which aims to make more efficient use of council resources by increasing its reliance on digital technology for service delivery while continuing to provide personal access for those unable to use it. An online survey runs until 15 September with a printable PDF version that can be posted to the civic centre.

Planning permission to rebuild the ROYAL CLARENCE HOTEL as residential flats with ground floor commercial units has still not been granted nearly ten 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. Nor was a further extended deadline of 14 July. Another deadline has now been set for 25 August, six years and ten months after the hotel burnt down.

EXETER CHIEFS rugby club has applied for permission to hold six large concerts with up to 15,500 attendees at weekends and an unlimited number of other events with up to 5,000 attendees between May and the third week of July every year. Its application relies on noise and transport impact surveys performed at four trial concerts held in June despite each being attended by well under a quarter of the intended audiences of 15,000.

The city council’s decision to refuse an application to demolish a HOWELL ROAD garage to construct a 26-bedroom purpose built student accommodation block on the site is being appealed by the developer, who has recently also applied to build a block of nine flats on the site.

Devon County Council is consulting until 14 August on proposals to convert a short stretch of cycle lane in NEW NORTH ROAD alongside John Lewis into a bus and cycle lane to reduce bus journey times. The new bus gate, part of the Devon Bus Service Improvement Plan, would enable around 200 buses a day to avoid travelling via Longbrook Street and York Road to reach the bus station and would also allow them to stop on Sidwell Street.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

COUNTY COUNCIL DETERMINED TO AXE HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION FUNDING DESPITE ZERO SUPPORT FOR CUTS

Fate of £1.5 million contract sealed before consultation began with district councils and services providers kept in dark and huge prospective financial and human costs, dwarfing claimed savings, ignored. Full story here.

THE ROAD AHEAD FOR STAGECOACH

Exeter’s bus services remain a topic of criticism, but when buses fail to turn up it’s too simplistic to blame the bus company. An interview with Stagecoach South West managing director Peter Knight helps explain why. Full story here.