Exeter City Council is in the process of writing the new “Exeter Plan”, which will form the basic planning document for the next 20 years, up to 2040.
Exeter Civic Society makes it a priority to comment on any new development in this issue, as we regard it as crucial to have a strengthened public voice in the consultation process. Our work on the ‘Wider Water Lane Area Redevelopment’ will feed into our comments on the Exeter Plan.
Our ‘Strategic Planning & Highways Group’ has been working on a response about the ‘Draft Exeter Plan’, released in Oct 2020. We sent our ECS document in to ECC, together with our ‘Prospectus’ on Friday, 16 December 2022, after having released parts of it at the Commonplace platform launched by ECC. Read out Exeter Civic Society Submission for the Draft Exeter Plan here.
Update Jan 2024
We submitted this response to the 2nd round of consultations on the Exeter Plan, 15 Jan 2024: https://exetercivicsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ECS-ExePlanComments-V3.pdf
Update Dec 2024
A working group of our ‘Strategic Planning & Highways Group’ is currently working on the newly published ‘Publication Plan, Regulation 19’ of the Exeter Plan. Deadline for comments is 6 Feb 2025. For the consultation documents see the link in the box below.
Update Feb 2025
We supplied our response to the Regulation 19 stage of the ‘Exeter Plan’: https://exetercivicsociety.org.uk/ecs-submitted-representations-to-exeter-publication-plan/
Update March 2026
The ‘Exeter Plan’ has made it to the Hearings stage, held by two independent inspectors. From the new material supplied we can see that a good amount of our points raised in our response from 2025 have been taken onboard in a list of changes prepared by ECC and to be decided upon by the inspectors. The questions the inspectors raised cover most of our so far not reacted to points. Our participation in the Examination Hearings could therefore be limited, as no repetition is allowed. At the hearing on 11 March, Keith Lewis commented on our views about how the Exeter Plan falls short of establishing a good framework for delivering affordable housing in the coming decades. Katherine Leat was able to focus on standards for Co-Living, which had been promised to be covered by an SPD (Supplementary Planning Document) during the Regulation 19 stage for last spring/summer, but are still not available. Gert Vonhoff explained that we were in favour of the inspectors’ suggestion for a ‘Tall Buildings Policy’ as part of the Exeter Plan. We will be back at these hearings for the strategic sites Red Cow (St Davids station) and South Gate (on 12 May), and Viability (on 14 May). For more details see: https://exetercivicsociety.org.uk/ecs-at-first-round-of-exeter-plan-examinations-meetings/
Exeter Civic Society will monitor equivalent local plans in the East Devon District Council and the Teignbridge District Council, as planning just outside Exeter will have impact on the traffic and employment situation in Exeter.
In January 2023 the ‘Strategic Planning & Highways’ Group responded to the East Devon Draft Plan with this letter and postings on the Commonplace electronic feedback system. We mainly dealt with traffic issues and planning suggestions in the areas close to Exeter and Topsham.
On 11 March 2023 the ‘Strategic Planning & Highways’ Group responded to the Teignbridge Plan with a letter and postings on the Commonplace electronic feedback system. We focussed on developments close to the western side of Exeter.
Nov 2023: we are currently working on Teignbridge District Council’s Proposed Submission Local Plan 2020-2040 Addendum which will be consulted on from 8 November until 5pm on 22 December 2023. Documents and supporting evidence are available at www.teignbridge.gov.uk/localplanaddendum .