Exeter Civic Society continues with its campaign against an Energy Centre at Grace Road Fields

Express & Echo published an article on 9 Jan 2025 focussing on our campaign against the placing of a new energy centre in the Riverside Valley Park. Our Chair Keith Lewis had written a letter of objection on 24 Dec 2024 to Exeter City Council's in response to its recently advertised notice to dispose of land at Grace Road Playing Fields for an Energy Centre and informed the press. Members were asked to send in their own letters of objections to the City Surveyor by the deadline end of December.

We objected for several reasons, some of them being:
1) This site is located in the Riverside Valley Park, and the Council’s 2012 Local Plan policy CP16 restricts development to only buildings that enhance the use of the valley park. This disposal is therefore contrary to council’s own planning policy which is established to ensure the valley parks are retained in a natural state for the benefit of the public as places for recreation and to enjoy nature. The council is not therefore fulfilling its statutory duty to protect the valley park.
2) No development proposals have been published by the City Council or developers for the public use of Grace Road Fields as required by policy S15 of the Water Lane SPD. Without such an analysis it is not possible for the council to determine whether there will be adequate provision for existing and future residents, including the provision of sports pitches.
3) The disposal of this site does not afford any time for the city council, developers, canal visitors and users, to consider future use of the site as set out in the Water Lane SPD policies.
4) The council has failed to publicly consider the needs of future residents from development at Water Lane and Marsh Barton for green infrastructure, even though it is expected that these homes will be mainly flats with little or no outside space, and well below the minimum expected in the Council’s SPDs of 55sq.m. for new houses. So the Riverside Valley Park will be of increased importance for the citizens living in these new developments.

The article’s headline in ‘Express and Echo’ reads: ‘Councillors and Civic Society criticise plan to sell field for an energy centre’. It is the continuation of our campaigning against the loss of a valuable site in the Riverside Valley Park. See also our news from Sep 2024 under https://exetercivicsociety.org.uk/ecs-concerned-about-the-disposal-of-public-open-space-for-an-energy-centre-in-the-riverside-valley-park/.

For the full letter sent by ECS to Exeter City Council follow the link in the sidebar.