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THE EXETER DIGEST

Exeter Digest #77: Devon & Torbay CCA sets sail - Sidwell Street Post Office closure - Police complaints handling

With our pick of upcoming local community and culture highlights and a recap of the top stories from our previous edition.

HEADLINES

Devon & Torbay CCA sets sail for regional democratic deficit with £500,000 crew

Combined county authority throws public accountability overboard as future regional strategic governance body ratifies constitution at inaugural meeting but fails to explain why so many staff needed to deliver so little at such colossal cost. Read more.

Sidwell Street Post Office to close as WHSmith shops sale raises risk of Exeter city centre counter service disappearance

Closure follows loss of Exeter’s last Crown Post Office in Bedford Street, since when all city branches operated by franchisees or independent businesses. Read more.

Devon & Cornwall Police complaints handling “not good enough by a long way”

Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez criticises force for poor performance but statutory report also finds poor commissioner’s office complaint appeals performance. Read more.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

Help hold Devon’s political parties and politicians to account during the 2025 local elections

Send us any campaign materials you receive so we can fact-check candidates’ claims and hold them to their pledges after the votes have been counted. Read more.

ON OUR RADAR

2025 Topsham Music Festival // Various venues

Three day event features jazz, percussion and classical music played by young professional musicians from across the country. More details.

Festa Di Liberazione // Kaleider

Italian Cultural Association Exeter hosts a day of music, dance, poetry and Italian culture. More details.

City Slam 2025 // Exeter Phoenix

Exeter City of Literature, Taking the Mic and Spork! co-host a third city-wide spoken-word poetry competition. More details.

Czech Classics // Exeter Cathedral

Isca Ensemble and chorus perform a programme by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. More details.

BELOW THE FOLD

City council holds sham Northbrook swimming pool closure consultation

£600,000 Exeter Leisure services budget cut signed off two weeks before pool consultation opened as St Sidwell’s Point drains other council leisure sites. Read more.

Met Office to sell Exeter Science Park supercomputer and office buildings

Disposal motivated by replacement of nine year-old supercomputer with £1.2 billion government-funded off-site Microsoft facility. Read more.

Annual city council rough sleeper count “consistently underestimates” extent of Exeter rough sleeping

Homelessness charity St Petrock’s calls on council to change count methodology which identifies fewer rough sleepers than those known by outreach workers and reflected in government figures. Read more.

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More stories
Illustrative view of proposed co-living blocks from Heavitree Road

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.

Boneyard arcade games

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.

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.

On Our Radar
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

Exeter Philharmonic Choir

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