HEADLINES
Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended
Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre. Read more.
Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search
Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for ‘co-living’ block at previous Red Lion Lane location. Read more.
Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation
Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored. Read more.
ON OUR RADAR
Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025 // Exeter Phoenix
Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam. More details.
Carmen // Exeter Castle & Mary Harris Memorial Chapel
Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier. More details.
The Weather Book // Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Philharmonic Choir performs a new weather-inspired work plus pieces by Brahms, Poulenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams. More details.
Sacred and Profane // St Nicholas Priory
Medieval music with Steve Tyler, Marco Cannavò and Katy Marchant. More details.
BELOW THE FOLD
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. Read this special report in full here.
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. Read more.
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. Read more.
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. Read more.
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. Read more.
