One disruptive startup Exeter can’t do without
Exeter is positioning itself as a global leader in sustainable living, but many obstacles to becoming a world-class environmental exemplar remain. If reality is to match rhetoric, significant local challenges must be met.
Attempts to deal with such problems are hampered by the way public policy is determined and delivered. Meanwhile other powerful yet unaccountable organisations and actors also significantly influence decision-making which affects us all.
Good quality local news coverage can help address these issues by providing accurate, relevant, timely information about who is deciding what on whose behalf and how the bill for these decisions will be paid.
However, the capacity of the press to perform these essential public interest tasks has been eroded and the editorial independence of existing local media is at risk.
Exeter Observer is part of an agile, innovative local news sector that has emerged in response to these systemic challenges to deliver independent community journalism with public interest at its heart.
An antidote to existing local media models
Exeter Observer is editorially and financially independent, which means we produce and distribute our content without political or commercial bias.
We aim to deliver investigative journalism and in-depth articles rooted in community interest with real relevance and impact while informing and empowering our readers.
We observe industry best-practice principles, are fully regulated, and are enabled by ordinary people who share our mission to strengthen civil society and help people participate more effectively in local democracy.
Help deliver the independent public interest community journalism Exeter needs
Exeter Observer is looking for occasional and regular contributors to help create and deliver our content.
We are also seeking compelling stories about issues affecting the public interest in Exeter and beyond.
Our capacity to scrutinise, investigate and report depends on having the resources to effectively interrogate information, arguments and the people who put them forward.
You can help sustain our research and writing about the issues that matter and ensure community interest journalism remains a public good which benefits everyone.
Exeter Observer is published by Greater Exeter CIC, a non-profit community interest company limited by guarantee, registration number 10711812.
Analysis / Planning & place
Exeter net zero housing revolution takes root in Chestnut Avenue
Exeter City Council is taking exploratory steps from talking about a zero carbon future to delivering one with a pilot housing project in Wonford.
Feature / Democracy & governance
Exeter & East Devon council accounts delayed by Grant Thornton's "lack of staff resources"
Annual accounts for local government, including Exeter City Council, have been delayed by private sector firms failing to complete their work on time after cost-cutting government auditing reforms.
Analysis / Democracy & governance
Conservative vote share varies across Devon but still blocks an Independent MP in East Devon
Labour loses vote share in every constituency, but retains Exeter and Plymouth Sutton & Devonport to leave the county position unchanged from 2017.
News / Democracy & governance
Conservatives hold Topsham in Exeter city council by-election
A by-election held on general election day produced an unusually high turnout but a lower Conservative vote share than at the May local elections.
Feature / Democracy & governance
East Devon Independent Claire Wright set to unite Remain voters in close historic two-way contest
Claire Wright is poised to make history by beating the Tories in East Devon next week. If she does it will be without thanks to the LibDems and Greens, who insisted on standing candidates against her despite the preferences of local party members and the Unite to Remain campaign.