An application to convert a large arts and crafts villa in Sylvan Road to an under-fives day nursery is set to test the credibility of an Exeter Local Plan active travel policy because of the building’s location near the top of a steep hill in Pennsylvania.
Exeter Academy has provided IELTS English language courses for non-native speakers from the villa for 45 years. A statement accompanying an application to change the building’s use claims that the academy is “due to vacate the property/end their lease shortly”.
However the academy is still accepting applications for its courses and said, when asked, that its future in Sylvan Road was uncertain and it would await the outcome of the planning application.
Building owner Anthony Wood-Rogers previously applied to convert the property to residential flats in 2006. When planning permission was refused he submitted a second, similar, application which was also refused.
The second refusal was subsequently upheld at appeal. The planning inspector concluded that the conversion would cause harm to the Pennsylvania Conservation Area and that one of the proposed flats would not provide satisfactory living conditions for its occupiers.
The new application to convert the building to a day nursery depends on whether “safe and convenient access by public transport, walking and cycling is available or can be provided” and that the change “will not harm local amenity”, according to Exeter Local Plan policy CS4.
Exeter Academy English language school in Sylvan Road, Pennsylvania
The proposed day nursery would be operated by Devon Nurseries, which provides under-fives nurseries in Alphington Road, Heavitree Road and Haldon Road.
The applicant’s agent says no more than 66 children would attend at any one time, as per the existing planning consent for the building’s use.
An accompanying planning statement says parents would drop children off between 8am and 9am each day, with most children expected to attend for a full day and 80% of collections taking place before 5.30pm
120 children would be expected to register at the nursery, but few of these would attend five days a week, which it says would “ensure that any short-term disruption on the local road network is kept to a minimum”.
The planning statement also says the Sylvan Road villa is in a “demonstrably sustainable location” which is “conducive to sustainable modes of travel”.
It adds that it is “easily accessible by walking and cycling” and is in “easy walking and cycling distance” of the city centre and the university’s Streatham campus, and cites the proximity of St James Park railway station and “regular bus services” in Sylvan Road, Union Road and Stoke Hill.
Pedestrian routes from St James Park railway station to Sylvan Road.
Image contains satellite imagery © 2024 Maxar Technologies, Map data © 2024.
The Sylvan Road villa is a mile and half from the city centre. The fastest route takes a fit adult 34 minutes to traverse on foot and requires a 250 foot climb up Pennsylvania Road hill, along which drivers frequently speed.
St James Park railway station is 1,400 yards from the villa and requires a 200ft climb. A fit adult can complete the fastest route on foot between the two in around twenty minutes.
The planning statement says “secure cycle stands are to be provided within the site for staff and parents to encourage sustainable modes of travel”. A response to a council planning officer query makes clear that the applicant expects very few children to arrive by bike: only four stands are to be provided, with more “if demand is there”.
The nearest bus stop is 70 yards from, and level with, the house in Sylvan Road. However the Dartline U service that stops there only arrives three times a day, between 10.25am and 12.35pm.
Another stop, in Rosebarn Avenue, is 350 yards from the house. Walking between the two requires the use of a very narrow pavement in a stretch of Pennsylvania Road that carries warning signs because vehicles cannot safely pass each other in opposite directions. Pedestrians then have to access Pennsylvania Park along a section of narrow lane that has no footpath at all.
The Rosebarn Avenue stop is served by the notoriously unreliable Stagecoach P bus.
Pennsylvania Park access from Pennsylvania Road
The next nearest bus stop is in Union Road, beside the Stoke Hill roundabout. Five buses serve it.
The Dartline 78S only runs on Sandy Park match days at weekends and on occasional weekday evenings. The Dartline Coly 7 is only accessible to Colyton Grammar school students and the Dartline TG001, which serves Torquay’s grammar schools, is also not publicly-accessible.
Stagecoach runs two services here. The 58A only stops twice a day, at 8.49am and 5.07pm. The F bus service does, however, run several times a day. The trouble is that the stop is more than 500 yards from the Sylvan Road villa, straight up a steep 130 foot climb.
Even access routes by motor vehicle are not ideal. The Pennsylvania Park access from Pennsylvania Road is not much safer for drivers than it is for pedestrians. Beech Avenue, further down the hill, is also a difficult turn on a fast stretch of narrow road.
Most drivers would approach the Sylvan Road villa from the Union Road turn beside Stoke Hill roundabout, adding to already significant traffic congestion at this junction.
Sylvan Road site plan. Image: Space Architects.
As things stand, most Exeter Academy language school students stay with nearby host families and can easily walk to and from the school, which has fifteen employees who share twelve off-road car parking spaces that are accessible via a short private drive.
The nursery would have around 25 employees who would, according to the applicant, share the five car parking spaces at the side of the building. This would leave seven car parking spaces to provide a “designated drop-off/pick-up area” for the nursery parents at the front.
Resident’s parking permits are required in Sylvan Road and Pennsylvania Park during the proposed nursery opening hours. All those who find getting their child to the nursery any other way than by car, and cannot wait for drop-off space inside the gate, will have no choice but to park in the street.
The applicant says “there will be a split between those parents who use the nursery on the way to work, those who work at/attend the university and those who live-close by”.
Certainly the nursery’s location would suit nearby residents in Beech Avenue and Sylvan Road, although the applicant has not indicated how many children are expected to attend from the immediate area.
University staff day nursery services for 104 children are already provided in Prince of Wales Road, at the heart of the Streatham campus. The applicant doesn’t mention these facilities, nor does it identify any other nearby employment sites.
The applicant does, however, say that Devon Nurseries is already rationing requests for increased nursery hours at its other sites as parents seek to access additional government-funded childcare hours, implying that the Sylvan Road nursery is expected to serve demand from across the city.
Two of these nurseries have been in operation since 1996 and the third since 2013. The absence of application travel pattern information demonstrating that a high proportion of parents walk or cycle their children to these nursery sites is striking.
So, too, is the absence of any transport statement, an omission pointed out by the county council highways officer but ignored.
Nor has a management plan, explaining how the applicant would reduce the likelihood of the new nursery use having an adverse impact on neighbouring amenity, been submitted despite a city council environmental health officer requesting its provision.
Does the applicant consider approval for the change of use a forgone conclusion? If it is approved, on this basis, it is hard to imagine in what circumstances Exeter Local Plan policy could meaningfully enforce active travel provision in development proposals anywhere else.
