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With our pick of upcoming local community and culture highlights and a recap of the top stories from our previous edition.
SPECIAL REPORT
Exeter City Council disregards national planning policy and Environment Agency criticism to approve Riverside Valley Park flood zone heat plant plans
Five gas boilers to provide 80% of “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields plant generation capacity for distribution to institutional consumers through privately-run 13-mile underground network expected to take ten years to complete.
25 STORIES FOR THE 2025 SUMMER RECESS
The Exeter Observer team is taking a short break from publishing during the summer recess to carry out essential maintenance and development work.
We’ve picked 25 stories from the past twelve months to keep you ticking over until our return in September.
ON OUR RADAR
Summer at the Quayside // Exeter Quay
A month of free family activities including weaving, felting, doodling and drumming. More details.
Exeter Street Arts Festival 2025 // Exeter city centre
The annual festival returns with street art, drumming, dance, workshops, walkabouts and live music. More details.
Heritage Open Days 2025 // Exeter city centre & elsewhere
Annual festival returns with free talks, tours and exhibitions at heritage sites in and around Exeter. More details.
Exeter Contemporary Open 2025 // Phoenix Gallery
Annual exhibition featuring fifteen contemporary visual artists from across the UK. More details.
BELOW THE FOLD
West Park redevelopment demolitions to proceed to enable intrusive unexploded ordnance surveys before works can begin
Five year-old University of Exeter plans to provide 2,000 new student bedspaces in blocks up to nine storeys tall by demolishing up to 30 buildings on fifteen acre Streatham campus site about to take seismic step towards delivery. Read more.
HMICFRS identifies sufficient Devon & Cornwall Police improvements to return force to routine monitoring
Inspectorate decision follows nearly three years of enhanced monitoring after force found inadequate in three of nine areas and requiring improvement in two more, but says “still work to do” in crime recording standards and investigations management. Read more.
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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
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.
Summerland Street “co-living” block build – and £200,000 CIL payment – postponed as council approves phased development
Demolition will secure permanent planning consent but leave city centre site in limbo with subsequent construction start date unknown.
Exeter College and Petroc merger set to create largest college group in South West
Colleges hold public consultation on creation of new organisation which they say would educate 16,000 students at Exeter and North Devon campuses and employ 2,000 staff with £100 million turnover.
Proposals to replace Clarendon House with 297-bed student accommodation complex submitted for approval
Developer Zinc Real Estate arrives at final proposal for up to ten storey Paris Street roundabout redevelopment after nearly two years of informal public consultations and meetings with city councillors and officers.
Barley Lane greenfield plans place persistent threat to Exeter’s north and north-west hills in spotlight
Council inability to identify sufficient land to meet government housing delivery targets leaves residents with faint hope of local plan policies preventing Nadder Park Road ridgeline development despite 175 public objections to scheme.
SATURDAY 4 OCTOBER TO SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2025
Play Interact Explore
Theatre Alibi hosts an interactive exhibition suitable for all ages created by artists Leap then Look.
EMMANUEL HALL
SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 2025
Nature’s Resources
A programme of six short animated films explores the relationship between humans and non-human species.
EXETER PHOENIX
