Family homes. Student homes. Retirement homes.

Three Exeter plans to be decided

An Exeter planning meeting with major implications for the city will finally take place this week.

Three applications were due to be considered last month; for up to 350 homes at St Bridget Nursery on Old Rydon Lane, new student accommodation on Howell Road and dozens of retirement apartments to replace the former Buckerell Lodge on Topsham Road.

However, the city council cancelled the meeting just hours before it was scheduled after an “administrative error” meant it failed to tell objectors it was taking place.

It warned that “if the meeting goes ahead, any decision made is at risk of being found unsound.”

Dozens of objections to each of the three applications councillors will now be considered at the rearranged meeting on Wednesday [8 February], but all are being recommended for approval by planning officers.

The application for up to 350 homes at St Bridget Nursery sets out how its horticultural and office buildings at Old Rydon Lane would be demolished, followed by a “phased construction” of housing.

Developer Waddeton Park plans 62 one-bedroom homes, 87 two-beds, 138 three-beds and 59 four-bed homes in its application, though this will be confirmed at a later date. Just over a third of the properties would be  ‘affordable’ – typically defined as up to 80 per cent of market rates.

At the Buckerell Lodge site, developer McCarthy Stone wants to demolish existing buildings and construct a retirement complex with 62 apartments and associated facilities.

The firm’s previous application failed at the start of last year, with reasons for refusal including that it was an “unduly large, unsympathetic and poorly designed form of development,” along with causing an “unnecessary” loss of protected trees and no contribution towards affordable housing.

Meanwhile, the proposal for Howell Road is to demolish an existing garage on the site and build four flats of purpose-built student accommodation, consisting of two seven-bed units and two six-bed units to give a total of 26 bed spaces.

Members of the planning committee will consider the applications at Exeter’s Civic Centre on Wednesday evening.