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NEWS
Plans for PBSA in back garden of Pennsylvania Road student HMO submitted for approval
Application for six-bed two-storey block cites neighbouring student block in back garden beside Devonshire Place orchard and play area as precedent.
Martin Redfern
An application to build a six-bed two-storey purpose built student accommodation block in the back garden of a student House in Multiple Occupation in Pennsylvania Road has been submitted to the city council for approval.
The application cites a student accommodation block in the back garden of the neighbouring property, granted planning permission in 2011, as a precedent for volume, massing and design.
Proposed floor plans and elevations. Image: Ercle.
Exeter homeless death rate highest among English cities featured in annual Museum of Homelessness campaign charity report
21 people died while homeless in Exeter in 2024, nearly three times as many as previous year, but council says nothing despite report publication during city homeless awareness week.
Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended
Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre.
Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search
Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for “co-living” block at previous Red Lion Lane location.
Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation
Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.
Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval
Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.
, updated
Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space
Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.
On Our Radar
SATURDAY 8 & SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025
Carmen
Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.
EXETER CASTLE
SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2025
The Weather Book
Exeter Philharmonic Choir performs a new weather-inspired work plus pieces by Brahms, Poulenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
EXETER CATHEDRAL
SATURDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2025
Sacred and Profane
Medieval music with Steve Tyler, Marco Cannavò and Katy Marchant.
Proposed floor plans and elevations. Image: Ercle.
