TOP STORY
Resident doctors set for six-day strike after Easter following “insufficient” pay offer from health secretary Wes Streeting
93% of British Medical Association resident doctor members vote in favour of fifteenth round of industrial action as dispute with government enters fourth year. Read more here.
EXETER IN BRIEF
Exeter City Council has been awarded £20 million of government PRIDE IN PLACE funding to be spent over the next ten years in Heavitree and Whipton. It says it will set up a dedicated board with Exeter MP Steve Race to “bring together residents, councillors, local organisations and partners to identify priorities and guide how the funding is used”.
An Exeter City Council bid to become 2029 UK CITY OF CULTURE has failed, as have rival bids by Plymouth and Bristol. The council announced its intention to submit a bid in late January at a promotional event which opened with a speech from council CEO Bindu Arjoon just two weeks after she presented a report claiming the council did not have sufficient capacity to hold this year’s local elections. The council’s previous city of culture bid also failed. The repeatedly-delayed replacement for Exeter’s cultural strategy, which expired two years ago, is currently scheduled for adoption in August.
Hire-by-the-hour car club CO WHEELS, which operates in 63 towns and cities in England and Scotland, has launched a scheme in Exeter with five low-emission hybrid vehicles located in Southernhay, Powderham Crescent, College Road, Polsloe Road and Bartholomew Street West. Devon County Council has been trying to procure a new countywide car club provider since the collapse of Exeter-based shared mobility provider Co-Cars, which ceased trading in July 2023 along with shared bike scheme Co-Bikes.
ON OUR RADAR
La Cenerentola // St Nicholas Priory
Exeter Opera Group performs Rossini’s variation on Cinderella with a twist. More details here.
Seedlings // Love Food hub
A one-off workshop focussed on the work of Akwesasne seed keeper Rowen White. More details here.
South West Shakespeare Festival // Exeter city centre
Inaugural festival programme features performances, exhibitions and film screenings. More details here.
ON THE AGENDA
Developer EUTOPIA HOMES has submitted further design revisions to its application for full planning permission for a 297-bed seven storey “co-living” complex in Mary Arches Street, triggering a third public consultation on the plans. Its latest revisions include roof line amendments and the addition of corner balconies. Previous design revisions included swapping bedspaces for kitchen space and halving cycle storage but did not address “miniscule” room sizes in the blocks, which were condemned as “slums of the future”. Comments on the revised proposals can be submitted via the city council website until Sunday 5 April.
Devon County Council has approved the delivery of a 1.5 kilometre second phase section of the EXETER TO CRANBROOK SHARED USE PATH after work on the the first phase of the path began last year as part of the construction of the new Clyst Meadows Country Park. When completed, the two-phase section will link an existing cycle path that runs through the Tithebarn and Mosshayne developments near Exeter Science Park to a further section which is due to be delivered by the developers of the Blue Hayes housing estate in Cranbrook. The newly-approved second phase section is expected to cost £4.2 million, £1.35 million of which will be funded by Active Travel England and £1.8 million by Community Infrastructure Levy payments.
Devon County Council has been awarded a total of £7.53 million to deliver around 90 new ZERO EMISSION BUSES across the county through the government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme. The new diesel-replacement fleet will include an additional fourteen vehicles funded through Devon’s Bus Service Improvement Plan.
