Exeter City Council has quietly opened a public consultation on the sale of 4.5 acres of open green space in Riverside Valley Park without admitting that the construction of a proposed heat exchanger plant on the land that the sale is intended to enable would contravene a local plan policy that is supposed to protect the valley park from development.
The council agreed to sell part of Grace Road Fields, an ex-playing field between the canal and the railway line with the new Marsh Barton station at its north-west corner, at a private meeting in July.
It agreed the sale of a 2.5 acre plot beside the station platform to Exeter Energy Limited, a Leeds-based company controlled by 1Energy Group and Asper Investment Management.
The company is to receive a £42.5 million share of £80.6 million government funding to construct an as-yet unapproved underground heating network using water from the River Exe.
Its headline claim is that the network will save 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year. The adjacent Marsh Barton waste incinerator produces more than double that on its own.
As the land is part of the Riverside Valley Park the council is required by law to hold a public consultation on its disposal and must “consider any objections to the proposed disposal which may be made” before re-affirming the decision to sell.
Grace Road Fields development illustrative aerial view. Image: Exeter Energy.
The council’s scant consultation materials fail to mention that Grace Road Fields are part of the Riverside Valley Park.
But they do include a conveyance plan that shows that nearly twice as much land as expected is to be sold – 4.5 acres – and that the heat exchanger plant will be positioned along the length of Grace Road Fields and not laterally, at the Marsh Barton station end, as previously shown.
They also include a promotional leaflet provided by the developer which claims that it chose Grace Road Fields for the heat exchanger because it is beside “a number of potential sources of low-carbon energy” of which it says it will connect to “at least one”.
It says these sources are the Marsh Barton waste incinerator, which its operator describes as an “Energy Recovery Facility”, the council Water Lane landfill site solar farm and the River Exe itself.
However a briefing note provided to the July council meeting which agreed the sale of the land, obtained under freedom of information legislation, said: “There is no relation between the Exeter Energy Network and the Marsh Barton ERF. The Exeter Energy Centre is independent of the ERF.”
And the 1.2MW photovoltaic array at the council solar farm is only capable, in optimal conditions, of producing less than a quarter of the 20MW heat exchanger’s 5MW electricity needs – and is already being used to charge council electric vehicles at its Exton Road depot.
Grace Road Fields development site conveyance plan. Source: Exeter City Council.
The company says it considered fourteen sites across Exeter for the heat exchanger. It does not explain why Belle Isle Depot, a 2.5 acre brownfield site which the council also decided to sell for redevelopment at its July meeting (for the second time) is not a better option than Grace Road Fields.
Belle Isle Depot is much closer to the river. Locating the plant at Grace Road Fields will require its distribution network to traverse the canal, the flood relief channel and the river before passing Belle Isle Depot on its way to its first major connection at County Hall.
But the council intends to sell Belle Isle Depot for housing development, for which it will fetch more than the £2 million it is expected to get for the land at Grace Road Fields, and two capital receipts will help shore up its financial position better than one.
Belle Isle Depot development site. Image: Exeter City Council.
City councillor Andy Ketchin asked council leader Phil Bialyk how the council could justify selling part of the Riverside Valley Park on purely commercial grounds at October’s city council meeting.
Phil Bialyk replied that the focus on price was driven by the need to determine whether the council would need the Secretary of State’s approval for the sale.
Andy Ketchin then asked whether the council could provide evidence that the developer had demonstrated that Grace Road Fields was the only suitable site for the plant, other than on cost grounds or for convenience alone.
Phil Bialyk said: “I understand where Councillor Ketchin is coming from and it’s difficult to be able to provide him with some formal response. What I will offer him, if he wants it, is a meeting with the appropriate director […] to get a response which can then be shared with everybody.”
He added: “I assume, no, I don’t assume, I know that the officers are working in the best interests of the city”.
Andy Ketchin says no meeting has taken place, despite his subsequent pursuit of the matter. Perhaps the heat exchanger plant needed a 4.5 acre site all along?
Exeter Energy heating network River Exe valley crossing open cut method. Image: Exeter Energy.
Despite its position on the far side of the canal, the developer-provided council public consultation leaflet also says that Grace Road Fields was chosen because it “allows a practical route to connect the energy centre to the city” .
It doesn’t mention that the least risky way to connect the network across the river valley would apparently involve running a pair of 1.2m diameter concrete pipes underneath the canal which would then have to cross the flood basin in a cutting and the river via an overground bridge.
And it says that the site was chosen because it is “adjacent to the Marsh Barton trading estate, so the energy centre will sit alongside the existing light-industrial context”.
It doesn’t mention that, during the first six months of construction around 50 vehicles a day, half of which would be HGVs, are expected to access the site not via Marsh Barton but via Water Lane. HGV visits would then fall to around a five a day, via the same route, for another twelve months.
Nor does it say that six months of construction works are also expected on the bank of the River Exe, near Duckes Marsh bridge, which five HGVs and five other vehicles will need to access each day. These vehicles will use the shared pedestrian and cycle path to reach the river from Bridge Road.
The council’s public consultation materials also have nothing to say about the impact that the installation of the heat network infrastructure will have on the city’s congested highways, which will be dug up along distribution routes as the network is built out over the next three or so years.
Exeter Energy heating network map. Image: Exeter Energy.
They nevertheless do say that Grace Road Fields is “close to proposed housing developments west of the River Exe” and is on “land that has been designated for strategic mixed-use allocation by Exeter City Council in the emerging local plan”.
1,000 of the homes that the council said would be built on Marsh Barton have just been withdrawn from the new local plan site allocations list. That leaves Water Lane, where the council now expects around 1,200 new dwellings to be completed in the four years from 2031, with others to follow.
Two years ago, the council published the outline draft of the new local plan. It was accompanied by a Housing & Economic Land Availability Assessment that described Grace Road Fields as “unsuitable for housing and employment development on flood risk grounds”.
(The Environment Agency is now insisting that the whole plant site is raised by 1.6 metres at a cost of £1.3 million to mitigate this risk and keep the plant running should the site flood.)
The outline draft plan nevertheless said that, while most of Water Lane was already allocated for redevelopment, it would expand the development site to include Grace Road Fields.
New Exeter Local Plan outline draft Water Lane redevelopment site allocation. Source: Exeter City Council.
Then in October last year the council published the draft version of a new Water Lane Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).
This said proposals for Grace Road Fields should “enhance nature and biodiversity”, “improve recreational opportunities”, “improve access to the canal” and “establish the area around Marsh Barton station as a regional destination for recreation and water-related activities”.
It classified the site under National Model Design Code rubric as “Nature N1 - Green Infrastructure” and said uses being considered included: “Biodiversity net gain habitat bank, woodland creation, recreational area, wildlife hub, canal basin/marina, energy centre, allotments and solar farm.”
It added: “The Riverside & Ludwell Valley Parks masterplan should be used for ideas and reference” and even included input from a citizen’s panel that referred to the masterplan, saying: “An urban campsite at Grace Road playing fields by Marsh Barton station would be a great attraction”.
The council adopted the final version of the Water Lane SPD, at the same meeting at which it agreed to sell the land, with all these provisions intact.
An accompanying consultation document included its commitment to Sport England involvement in future open space plans in response to Sport England support for the “the use of Grace Road Fields as a sports and recreation hub”.
It also contained a council statement that “any proposals for renewable energy development at Grace Road Fields will be managed sensitively in accordance with adopted planning policies”, in response to Devon Wildlife Trust concerns about their likely impact.
Water Lane Supplementary Planning Document regulating plan. Source: Exeter City Council.
The council also published the full draft of the new Exeter Local Plan for public consultation at the same time as the draft Water Lane SPD. This simply described Grace Road Fields as “now disused”.
An accompanying proposals map annexed the section of the Riverside Valley Park it occupies, along with the canal itself, and allocated them for “strategic mixed use” as part of the Water Lane redevelopment site.
Then, earlier this week, the council published the version of the new local plan that will be submitted to the planning inspectorate for examination next year.
This describes the whole Water Lane allocation as brownfield redevelopment site despite Grace Road Fields being a fifteen-acre valley park green field.
Riverside & Ludwell Valley Parks Masterplan map. Source: Exeter City Council.
But Grace Road Fields is still designated as a recreation ground in the city council’s Riverside & Ludwell Valley Parks Masterplan, another supplementary planning document that forms part of the local development framework under the current local plan.
The council says: “The need for this plan is driven largely by the growing population of the city, which is having an indirect impact on the Exe Estuary, a protected European wildlife site. This impact has to be mitigated, by law.
“One of the elements of the mitigation strategy is the enhancement of alternative natural green space, and the council has identified these two parks for this purpose.
“We need to make the parks more attractive for people, particularly those walking the dog, thus taking pressure off the estuary and its wild bird populations.”
It adds: “Fundamentally, the plan sets out where new areas of public recreational space can be created, and where improvements to existing space can be made”.
Grace Road Fields in morning mist
The valley parks masterplan itself says: “Grace Road playing fields and the Water Lane tip [now the solar farm] are currently disjointed from the parks located on the west side of Clapperbrook swing bridge.
It continues: “Activating this area of the site can help to improve the area to make it a desirable recreation area for all”, and says that the then unbuilt Marsh Barton station would provide “significant opportunity for the area to develop as a main gateway to the valley parks.”
Acknowledging its under-use as playing fields, it says Grace Road Fields is “a key place for woodland planting, and forest clearings and openings can be created to provide opportunities for picnicking and fire pits for families to gather around.
“A picnic and barbecue area could be developed with a seasonal camping ground, and the field could be rented for festivals and events, from country fairs to farmers markets or folk festivals.
“This can all be supplemented by a peripheral walking route that will connect to the Alphin Brook to enable people to access 20 hectares of new natural green space.”
The masterplan also proposes a new canal basin at the eastern end of the fields. But it only remains in force until just before the council hopes the new local plan will be approved in 2026.
The council is required by law to consider any comments on its plans to dispose of the land at Grace Road Fields that are submitted in writing before 5pm on Tuesday 31 December, either via email to estates@exeter.gov.uk or by post to The City Surveyor, Exeter City Council, Paris Street EX1 1JJ.
The council says the public consultation results will be “presented to Executive prior to any exchange on the disposal of the site”. Its executive committee is next scheduled to meet on 14 January next year.
The developer says it expects to begin construction in “early 2025”, apparently confident that, no matter the outcome of the consultation, the council will ratify the sale.
Waste heat from the Marsh Barton incinerator does not appear to have been considered as an alternative network supply for future Water Lane housing development west of the River Exe.
