ECS responds to Unit 1 redevelopment in Summerland Street

Exeter Civic Society sent its response to the redevelopment plans to Spinnaker Estates. The plan is for more student accommodation in this area. On our doubts raised at the drop-in event on 10 September, the representative said that their studios focus on a slightly different market segment and that this would further help to free up HMOs in residential areas to be re-converted into family homes. We made clear that we do not 'buy' this, given that the University is now starting their building of West Park with more than 1,000 student places on campus. So far we have not seen much impact on the residential areas from all these new student blocks. Our written concerns dealt with the proposals in much more detail.

Points we raised covered:

  • building would profit from being set back from Summerland Street and Verney Street
  • inconsistency of exterior imagery
  • brick treatment and its local context
  • roof design lacks architectural interest
  • amenity space on 5th floor better placed at ground level
  • our concerns about the size of PBSA rooms
  • lack of indicative plans for conversion to standard residential use as required by the emerging Exeter Plan should this building not prove successful as PBSA
  • low number of accessible studios per floor
  • unclear amount of cycle storage (number of places, supporting various types
  • improvements of walking and cycling routes in the vicinity
  • insufficient looking waste bin space for collection

You can read our full response under: https://exetercivicsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Exeter-Civic-Society-Consultation-Response-redacted.pdf