Exeter Observer is owned and managed, researched and written, designed and developed, produced and promoted by people who share a mission to deliver in-depth articles and investigative journalism rooted in community interest with real relevance and impact.
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Martin Redfern
Martin Redfern is managing editor of Exeter Observer and a director of its publisher Greater Exeter CIC.
He has 25 years’ experience working with public and private sector organisations in multi-stakeholder contexts to achieve social change goals.
He holds a Master’s degree with distinction in Journalism at Birkbeck, University of London and has a background in campaigning, project management and multimedia design and development.
Stories written by
Martin Redfern
Analysis / Climate & environment
Exeter youth climate strikers launch Green New Deal for Devon
Fridays For Future Exeter have published a detailed vision of a more equitable future that calls on elected representatives across the county to recognise the climate crisis as a symptom of a dysfunctional political economy.
News / Climate & environment
Thousands march in Exeter for global climate strike as millions mobilise worldwide
Fridays for Future Exeter led 3500 people on a climate crisis demonstration through the city backed by dozens of organisations on the eve of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York.
News / Education & skills
Education union challenges university to address widespread casualisation of teaching staff
Exeter University & College Union (UCU) launched an anti-casualisation campaign on Friday as a prelude to negotiation with the University of Exeter over academic staff contracts.
News / Climate & environment
Mock funeral march brings Exeter city centre to a sombre standstill
Extinction Rebellion campaigners brought the gravity of the ecological emergency home to Exeter on Saturday in a funereal procession commemorating wildlife loss caused by climate change.
Longread / Climate & environment
We already know what to do about the climate crisis. We must get on with doing it as fast as we can.
Exeter and Devon council leaders must begin rapid regional decarbonisation now. The quickest, cheapest way to cut emissions in Exeter is to deter combustion engines from entering the city. Clean air legislation offers a basis for action.
Interview / Strategy & governance
Is EU membership essential to our ability to deal with the climate emergency?
Molly Scott Cato, Green Party MEP for the South West, visited Exeter during her re-election campaign to explain why the EU and its Green Group is leading the way on a wide range of progressive policies.
Feature / Planning & place
Mount Radford Lawn development proposals conflict with St Leonards community vision
Exeter Deaf Academy hopes to sell a school playing field to developers who plan to build luxury homes. Local residents have other ideas about how best to use the land. A dispute is looming over an historic green space driven by prospective profit from planning gain.
Preview / Arts & culture
Rainbow Trail LGBTQIA+ exhibition queers RAMM for Exeter Pride 2019
A new collaboration between X-Plore Youth Devon, Exeter College LGBTQ+ society, Natalie McGrath of Dreadnought SW and Dr Jana Funke of the University of Exeter explores gender and sexual diversity across time, place and culture by reimagining objects from the RAMM collections.
News / Strategy & governance
Exeter Labour loses local elections in all three city centre wards
Voters in Exeter yesterday elected three new councillors to represent them in the key wards that cover the city centre, with all the city's ruling Exeter Labour group candidates missing out despite the party's confident campaign.
Profile / Strategy & governance
Local resident stands as independent candidate in Exeter elections
Jemima Moore is a 36 year-old part-time primary school teacher and mother of two young children with little political experience. So why has she decided to stand for election to Exeter City Council on 2 May?
News / Climate & environment
Exeter Extinction Rebellion stages climate emergency protest
Today around 70 people joined the Exeter branch of Extinction Rebellion on the city's streets to demand urgent action to minimise the risk of catastrophic impacts from climate change.
Opinion / Planning & place
Exeter St James regeneration
How can the supply of low-cost, incrementally investable city centre accommodation be stimulated to attract and retain creative, technically-skilled young entrepreneurial talent?
Opinion / Climate & environment
Streets are for people, not cars
Cars adversely affect economic output, air quality and wellbeing, take up valuable space when parked and discourage people from walking and cycling when driven. Reducing their use would enhance Exeter's retail and leisure offer, improve public health and attract needed workers to the city.
Stories subedited by
Martin Redfern
Review / Arts & culture
Preston Street Union rolls out the red carpet
The Exeter-based artists explore migration driven by the city's historic wool trade in new work commissioned by RAMM.
Opinion / Climate & environment
Exeter Youth Strike 4 Climate - the floodgates are open
Exeter is one of the smallest cities in Britain, yet it has produced some of the country's biggest youth strikes. Climate activist Sophie Sleeman recounts the story so far and explains what it means to the young people who are creating a global wave of change.
Preview / Arts & culture
Jambassadors feature in pop-up Jazz Toast at Barnfield Theatre
Musical director Roz Harding invites us to join an Exeter College Music Academy student collective in a one-night-only experimental exploration of in-the-moment improvisation.
Review / Arts & culture
Extreme Imagination - Inside the Mind's Eye
University of Exeter research fellow Dr Matthew MacKisack guides us through a RAMM exhibition that explores works by artists, writers and makers with widely varying visual imaginations.
Review / Arts & culture
Playing with gender expectations at Barnfield Theatre
An Exeter College interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream transforms it into an enchanting contemporary gender-adapted tale.
Review / Arts & culture
Out of sight, out of mind
A performance of From The Light of The Fire, Our Dancing Shadows in Exeter for Kaleider Mikrofest appears to favour illusion over truth in a confused rendering of Plato's cave allegory that leaves both performers and audience in the dark.
Stories with photography by
Martin Redfern
Analysis / Climate & environment
Exeter youth climate strikers launch Green New Deal for Devon
Fridays For Future Exeter have published a detailed vision of a more equitable future that calls on elected representatives across the county to recognise the climate crisis as a symptom of a dysfunctional political economy.
News / Climate & environment
Thousands march in Exeter for global climate strike as millions mobilise worldwide
Fridays for Future Exeter led 3500 people on a climate crisis demonstration through the city backed by dozens of organisations on the eve of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York.
News / Climate & environment
Mock funeral march brings Exeter city centre to a sombre standstill
Extinction Rebellion campaigners brought the gravity of the ecological emergency home to Exeter on Saturday in a funereal procession commemorating wildlife loss caused by climate change.
Briefing / Strategy & governance
Exeter could do better - was there no alternative to closing so many public toilets?
Exeter City Council did not need to close thirteen public toilets to balance the books. The money to keep them open was available in reserves, but no mention of this option was made during public decision-making by councillors or officers.
Longread / Climate & environment
We already know what to do about the climate crisis. We must get on with doing it as fast as we can.
Exeter and Devon council leaders must begin rapid regional decarbonisation now. The quickest, cheapest way to cut emissions in Exeter is to deter combustion engines from entering the city. Clean air legislation offers a basis for action.
Opinion / Climate & environment
Exeter Youth Strike 4 Climate - the floodgates are open
Exeter is one of the smallest cities in Britain, yet it has produced some of the country's biggest youth strikes. Climate activist Sophie Sleeman recounts the story so far and explains what it means to the young people who are creating a global wave of change.
Feature / Planning & place
Mount Radford Lawn development proposals conflict with St Leonards community vision
Exeter Deaf Academy hopes to sell a school playing field to developers who plan to build luxury homes. Local residents have other ideas about how best to use the land. A dispute is looming over an historic green space driven by prospective profit from planning gain.
News / Climate & environment
Exeter Extinction Rebellion stages climate emergency protest
Today around 70 people joined the Exeter branch of Extinction Rebellion on the city's streets to demand urgent action to minimise the risk of catastrophic impacts from climate change.
Review / Arts & culture
Out of sight, out of mind
A performance of From The Light of The Fire, Our Dancing Shadows in Exeter for Kaleider Mikrofest appears to favour illusion over truth in a confused rendering of Plato's cave allegory that leaves both performers and audience in the dark.
Galleries with photography by
Martin Redfern
Gallery / Climate & environment
Exeter Extinction Rebellion Wave of Water march
Extinction Rebellion campaigners marched through Exeter city centre led by a samba band and dressed in blue to represent a wave of water, highlighting rising sea levels and the coming global water crisis.
Other contributors
Leigh Curtis
Leigh Curtis is arts & culture editor of Exeter Observer and a director of its publisher Greater Exeter CIC.
She has a background in print design and production and project and account management with leading London media and design agencies.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she has also managed exhibitions and degree shows.
Moragh Mason
Moragh Mason is a researcher and contributing writer for Exeter Observer.
She has a background in the public sector in a variety of roles. The ones she enjoyed most involved investigation and report writing.
Since escaping the world of work she continues to put those skills to good use. She is concerned about the loss of green space in Exeter and is involved in the campaign to save the Clifton Hill sports centre site from development.
Peter Cleasby
Peter Cleasby is contributing editor of Exeter Observer and a director of its publisher Greater Exeter CIC.
A former senior civil servant, specialising in policy development and managing public business, he subsequently became a freelance policy, management and governance consultant, and a trustee of several national and local charities.
Today, he has escaped from the boardroom and works - unpaid, of course - as a watchkeeper at Exmouth Coastwatch, research officer for Exeter Green Party, lay member of a research ethics committee at Exeter University, occasional blogger, campaigner for openness in public life, and doing any other interesting odd jobs that crop up from time to time.
Roz Harding
Roz Harding is a jazz saxophonist who teaches at Exeter College where she also leads the Jazz Project and Jambassadors.
She has performed in a wide variety of ensembles and recording projects. Her music has been played on Jazz FM and BBC Radio 6 Music and she has played live on air for BBC Radio 3 and at venues including Ronnie Scotts, The Vortex, London Jazz Festival, Kings Place, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Women in Jazz and Birmingham Jazz.
She can be found playing in Mike Westbrook’s The Uncommon Orchestra, Kate Westbrook’s GRANITE, Dave Holdsworth’s New Brew, Emma Welton’s A Quiet Night In, Billie Bottle and the Multiple and leading her own project SUPERMOOD. She has also started working with Tom Glazebrook and his visual theory of music Meta-Harmony.
She has been involved in numerous youth projects in the UK and Europe, including Devon Youth Jazz Orchestra, and teaches at Exeter College, Plymouth University and South West Music School.
Sophie Sleeman
Sophie Sleeman is a seventeen-year-old climate activist, writer and student at Exeter College.
She works with the UK Student Climate Network to mobilise the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement and has recently been published in The Guardian, The Ecologist, The Big Issue and Open Democracy.
She also enjoys climbing on Dartmoor and writing poetry.
Vanessa Miles
Vanessa Miles is a portrait, editorial and events photographer and has been a photography tutor at Exeter Phoenix since 2013.
She has exhibited at Exeter Phoenix, Exeter Picture House, Plymouth Art Weekender and The Art Institute, Plymouth and her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times, Country Life, The Ecologist and Resurgence.
She works with individuals, workshop groups, families and organisations and is a frequent collaborator on scientific and environmental projects.
More information is available on her website.
Exeter Observer is published by Greater Exeter CIC, a non-profit community interest company limited by guarantee, registration number 10711812.
News / Strategy & governance
Exeter City Council cuts scrutiny of executive decision-making
Constitutional changes proposed by Exeter City Council will make it more difficult to hold the ruling political group to account.
Analysis / Climate & environment
Exeter youth climate strikers launch Green New Deal for Devon
Fridays For Future Exeter have published a detailed vision of a more equitable future that calls on elected representatives across the county to recognise the climate crisis as a symptom of a dysfunctional political economy.
News / Climate & environment
Thousands march in Exeter for global climate strike as millions mobilise worldwide
Fridays for Future Exeter led 3500 people on a climate crisis demonstration through the city backed by dozens of organisations on the eve of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York.
News / Education & skills
Education union challenges university to address widespread casualisation of teaching staff
Exeter University & College Union (UCU) launched an anti-casualisation campaign on Friday as a prelude to negotiation with the University of Exeter over academic staff contracts.
Comment / Strategy & governance
Exeter protest misses its mark by mixing its messages
One of Exeter's biggest ever street demonstrations combined anti-Brexit and pro-democracy concerns to produce a confused protest against government policy.