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THE EXETER DIGEST

Exeter Digest #42: Scrutiny Programme Board special report

Our year end edition also includes other local news that matters plus a selection of musical events for New Year’s Eve and Twelfth Night.

SPECIAL REPORT

City council scrutiny board enabling illicit obstruction of democracy

Essential safeguard against misuse of power misdirected by Executive members and senior officers while backbench councillors persistently denied rights to examine high-risk schemes and citywide climate crisis response.

Read the full report here.

OTHER LOCAL NEWS THAT MATTERS

Student landlord submits new plans for Union Road HMO back garden block following appeal failure

Application for six bedroom, single storey purpose built student accommodation block made on site of refused ten bedroom, two storey scheme in garden of thirteen bedroom shared student house. Read more here.

Junior doctors stage industrial action either side of Christmas in longest strike in NHS history

Latest round of strikes are eighth walkout by junior doctors in eighteen month national dispute over pay and employment conditions with government. Read more here.

Regional transport infrastructure strategy published for public consultation

Framework seeks to draw together major evidence base assembled over several years to address key challenges to 2050 including integration of walking and cycling with local bus and rail network and freight decarbonisation. Read more here.

Old Exeter bus and coach station to be demolished five and a half years after closure

Bristol-based Wring Group appointed as contractor by city council to demolish building to slab level but not to remove foundations, leaving rest of Citypoint site untouched. Read more here.

Developers seek feedback on replacement of Clarendon House with student accommodation

350-bed block up to sixteen storeys tall proposed on site of underutilised offices on corner of Western Way and Heavitree Road. Read more here.

CHRISTMAS APPEAL

St Petrock’s Christmas appeal to raise funds to support its work with rough sleepers

Exeter homelessness charity’s fundraising campaign features short film exploring how it feels to be homeless. Read more here.

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ON OUR RADAR

New Year’s Eve concert // St Nicholas Priory

A celebration with flautist trio Flute Cake. Sunday 31 December. More details here.

Exeter Phoenix NYE // Exeter Phoenix

A silver, sparkly mirror ball-themed New Year’s Eve celebration to welcome in 2024. Sunday 31 December. More details here.

Twelfth Night candlelit concerts // St Nicholas Priory

Pianist Alex Wilson plays traditional music from across Europe at Christmastime. Friday 5 and Saturday 6 January. More details here.

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SEASON’S GREETINGS

The Exeter Observer team will be taking a break over the next ten days. We’d like to wish all our readers our very best for the festive season, with hope for a more peaceful and prosperous 2024.

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More stories
Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

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.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

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

Grace Road Fields in March

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.

Exeter College and Petroc campuses map

Exeter College and Petroc merger set to create largest college group in South West

Colleges hold public consultation on creation of new organisation which they say would educate 16,000 students at Exeter and North Devon campuses and employ 2,000 staff with £100 million turnover.

Proposed Clarendon House student block aerial view

Proposals to replace Clarendon House with 297-bed student accommodation complex submitted for approval

Developer Zinc Real Estate arrives at final proposal for up to ten storey Paris Street roundabout redevelopment after nearly two years of informal public consultations and meetings with city councillors and officers.

On Our Radar
Still from How the Little Mole Got His Trousers

SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 2025

Nature’s Resources

A programme of six short animated films explores the relationship between humans and non-human species.

EXETER PHOENIX

Jo Eades

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025

Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025

Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam.

EXETER PHOENIX

Carmen with rose graphic

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