Exeter Digest #80: 2025 local elections results special
With our pick of upcoming local community and culture highlights and a recap of the top stories from our previous edition.
LOCAL ELECTIONS RESULTS SPECIAL
Lib Dems take command at County Hall despite Reform UK surge as Conservatives lose 33 seats and Labour is wiped out
2025 Devon County Council elections leave balance of power in Green Party hands as local government reorganisation takes centre stage on regional political agenda. Read more here.
2025 Devon County Council elections results
County-wide seat wins and vote share changes plus the votes cast with vote share, party vote share change and turnout in each Exeter division. Read more here.
Reform UK takes Mincinglake & Whipton from Labour in Exeter City Council by-elections
Labour holds Topsham by just 28 votes as party polls only 0.25% above Reform across both wards. Read more here.
2025 Exeter City Council by-elections results
The votes cast for each candidate with vote share, party vote share change and turnout in Mincinglake & Whipton and Topsham. Read more here.
ON OUR RADAR
The Slightest Gesture // Exeter Phoenix
Sculptor and installation artist Tabatha Andrews presents a new immersive exhibition. More details here.
Exeter Pride 2025 // Northernhay Gardens
Exeter Pride returns for a celebration of LGBTQ+ diversity with a parade, marketplace, music, cabaret and more. More details here.
Czech Classics // Exeter Cathedral
Isca Ensemble and chorus perform a programme by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. More details here.
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 here.
Pint of Science 2025 // Exeter city centre
Three days of talks, demonstrations and live experiments by research scientists in city centre pubs. More details here.
BELOW THE FOLD
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.
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Exeter City Council is about to seize the helm of Exe estuary maritime life: will it steer it onto the rocks?
Charges for waterways access are set to be imposed from the quay and canal basin to the coast under proposed Harbour Revision Order powers after six years of rising costs propelled by pursuit of Port Marine Safety Code compliance. They risk driving away craft of all sizes, from kayaks to yachts, while redevelopment threatens canalside land – but it’s not too late to change course.
The redevelopment of KING GEORGE V PLAYING FIELD by Exeter City Community Trust has begun after a scheme to install a full-size artificial football pitch with floodlighting, refurbish and extend a sports pavilion and expand its car park was approved by Exeter City Council last August. The decision was made by officers and did not go before the council’s planning committee. It followed a July 2024 council decision to transfer 40 acres of land at the Countess Wear playing fields to the trust which was made without a promised “wide-ranging, fully open public consultation” on the proposal. The trust instead held an informal consultation in December 2024. The council executive is due to hear an otherwise unexplained item related to the scheme next month described as “relating to financial ask of c.£475,000”.
£46 million of debt – including £392,000 owed to former employees – will be left unpaid by MIDAS CONSTRUCTION LIMITED following its dissolution, according to documents filed at Companies House by its administrator. The 2022 collapse of Midas, which had seven offices in Exeter and across the south west, led to hundreds of job losses and left numerous projects stalled including schools, homes, hotels and warehouses.
Significant storm damage has prompted emergency works to shore up the bank separating the Exe estuary from the BOWLING GREEN MARSH nature reserve at Topsham. Exeter City Council has repeatedly postponed a flood defence scheme proposed for the site, which it owns. It says that the emergency works are “not likely not be a long-term solution” and that “longer-lasting repairs for the areas of worst damage” are “currently being investigated”.
The developer of a scheme at 130 FORE STREET is seeking to amend the design, height and layout of the building, which extends down West Street towards Grade I listed St Mary Steps church, by converting the building’s basement level – previously occupied by Crankhouse Coffee – from commercial to residential use and reducing the number of flats in the scheme, which was originally approved thirteen years ago. Exeter City Council rejected an attempt to add a fifth storey to the scheme in 2023, a decision which was upheld at appeal last year.
The government has said it will write off 90% of the SEND SERVICES deficit accumulated by Devon County Council to the end of March this year. The Devon deficit reached £171 million last October, among the largest in the country and £62.9 million more than the limit agreed with the government as part of its “safety valve” deal, according to a county cabinet report published last month. Devon County Council leader Julian Brazil said it had since risen to around £200 million. The council welcomed the announcement, although it will have to agree to change the way it offers SEND services under as-yet unpublished government plans, adding that it would need to “work through the detail” as part of its budget-setting process.
More stories
Exeter local elections to go ahead in May after government cancellation U-turn
Secretary of State Steve Reed withdraws decision following legal advice in face of Reform UK High Court challenge, leaving city council leader Phil Bialyk facing electoral oblivion.
Exeter City Council leader Phil Bialyk hides behind flimsy CEO capacity claims to contrive local elections cancellation
Labour councillors plumb new depths to cling to power – and personal financial gain – as government-backed contempt for democracy enables seven of eight executive members to avoid ballots in their wards until council abolition in 2028.
Exeter Rugby Group reports £10.3 million losses as Exeter Chiefs seeks new investor
Losses include £6.2 million loan write-off associated with Sandy Park Hotel owned by club chairman Tony Rowe.
Exeter is for Everyone event attendees outnumber anti-migrant marchers 14:1
Around 850 people took part in city centre event held under “Unite Against the Far Right” banner while “Unity March Exeter” attendees numbered around 60.
Plans for six-storey Summerland Street student block submitted for approval
Spinnaker Estates application for full planning permission for 180-bed redevelopment would increase number of student beds in immediate area to 1,754.
Devon County Council funding cuts set to reduce core library opening hours by 30%
Public consultation on changes explores possibility of closing some branches altogether despite claims to the contrary while Libraries Unlimited contract extension decision scheduled for six weeks before consultation ends.
On Our Radar
THURSDAY 5 & FRIDAY 6 MARCH 2026
Two Short Nights
Short film festival returns with awards ceremony and more.
EXETER PHOENIX
SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2026
From Haydn to The Highlands
The Orchard Cafe Quartet plays folk and classical music from Scandinavia and Scotland.
ST NICHOLAS PRIORY
SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2026
The People of Exeter
An afternoon hosted by Love St Thomas focussed on Exeter’s historic multicultural character with talks, conversation and a community lunch.
ST THOMAS CHURCH HALL
Spotlight
Labour and Conservative councillors join forces to block Exeter city centre antisocial behaviour initiative
Rejection of voluntary and community sector calls for more inclusive response follows thirteen-year council failure to comply with legal duties under crime and disorder legislation in relation to Exeter Community Safety Partnership.
