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Exeter City Futures board minutes published nearly nine months after meeting held

Minutes confirm Global City Futures work on Exeter Development Fund continues via direct city council contract framework and suggest university could retain brand after company dissolution.

Martin Redfern

Exeter City Futures has published the minutes of its 1 December 2022 board meeting nearly nine months after the meeting was held.

While the company’s website says the page from which the minutes are accessible was published on 26 June, the minutes themselves were not made available until 24 August.

The page also says the company’s board is “committed to being completely transparent and open about the things that are discussed at board meetings”.

Exeter City Futures 1 December 2022 board minutes Exeter City Futures 1 December 2022 board minutes, published in August 2023.

The minutes confirm that Global City Futures, another Oxygen House company which was previously in control of Exeter City Futures, has continued work on the controversial Exeter Development Fund via a direct contract framework agreement with the city council under Ian Collinson, the council’s development director.

The fund is expected to focus on redevelopment in the Southgate area, allocated site reference 46 in the current version of the new Exeter Local Plan, and an area alongside Exeter St David’s station known as “Red Cow village”, site reference 22 in the new Exeter Local Plan.

Exeter City Futures branding Exeter City Futures branding

The minutes also suggest the University of Exeter could retain use of the Exeter City Futures brand following the company’s dissolution.

The city council announced in June that Exeter City Futures would be wound up at the end of the month following the final event in its £250,000 National Lottery-funded community engagement programme, although it has yet to file.

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.

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