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THE EXETER DIGEST

Exeter Digest #79: 2025 local elections special

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

LOCAL ELECTIONS SPECIAL

2025 Exeter & Devon local elections guide

Devon County Council elections take place on 1 May alongside two Exeter City Council by-elections. Our essential guide explores the background to this year’s ballot and assesses the contests in each of the city’s electoral divisions and wards. Read it here.

When, where and how to vote in the 2025 Exeter local elections

Our guide to casting your ballot in person, by post and by proxy as well as voter ID requirements and new regulations for postal votes. Read it here.

ON OUR RADAR

The Slightest Gesture // Exeter Phoenix

Sculptor and installation artist Tabatha Andrews presents a new immersive exhibition. More details.

Exeter Pride 2025 // Northernhay Gardens

Exeter Pride returns for a celebration of LGBTQ+ diversity with a parade, marketplace, music, cabaret and more. More details.

Czech Classics // Exeter Cathedral

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

Fore Street Flea 2025 // Fore Street

Market with stalls selling vintage items, handmade craft, food and drink plus live music from local artists returns for 2025 season. More details.

Pint of Science 2025 // Exeter city centre

Three days of talks, demonstrations and live experiments by research scientists in city centre pubs. More details.

BELOW THE FOLD

Heavitree & Whipton Barton community groups miss out on £14,600 after Danny Barnes fails to sign funding agreements

Voluntary sector grants now lost following 12% councillor attendance record highlighting need for by-elections in absentee cases. Read more.

Criminal investigation into suspended Devon & Cornwall Police Chief Constable dropped

Will Kerr to remain suspended while IOPC resumes previously paused conduct investigation and interim chief constable James Vaughan continues to lead force. Read more.

South West Water bills rise by a third following worst performance in sector with 550,000 hours of sewage spills

Tariffs increase as Environment Agency publishes damning data after South West Water owner Pennon Group issues £24.5 million in dividends to shareholders. 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