Pinhoe Developments: Have Your Say

On Saturday, Councillor Moira MacDonald and I had a very good day at the Pinhoe Community Association Family Fun Day, a celebration of the diamond jubilee of our community centre, America Hall. The event was very well attended, and though overcast, the day was largely dry. Moira and I used the opportunity to talk to local residents about their ideas for new community facilities in Pinhoe.


We asked locals three straightforward questions:

• What do you most like about Pinhoe?
• What do you least like?
• What does Pinhoe lack that you would like to see?

The top answers to question one were no surprise to Moira and I. People overwhelming like the sense of the community here, the facilities and the friendliness of the people:

What do you most like about living in Pinhoe?

When we asked what people dislike most about living in Pinhoe, the answers were similarly predictable. Most people dislike the traffic - particularly at peak times - and there is concern that this traffic will get worse with planned developments in the area. Traffic "pressure points" that came in for specific mentions included the double mini-roundabouts in the village, Chancel Lane bridge, and turning right out of Venny Bridge onto Pinhoe Road. Many were concerned about further development generally, and this scored second-highest after traffic as an issue.

What do you least like about living in Pinhoe?

However, with increased development will come increased community investment. Moira and I wanted to get a sense from local residents what they feel Pinhoe lacks - what the community most needs. Here's what people told us: 

What does Pinhoe most need?

Public toilets (possible sites mentioned were adjacent to the changing rooms at Station Road Playing Fields, and next to Lloyds Bank on the Main Road); supported, warden-assisted housing for older people; and a base for youth-work in the area were the ideas most commonly suggested. What do you think? Email me your thoughts: Simon4Pinhoe@gmail.com or add a comment to this blog.

Whether there will be development in our area is not up for debate. The Exeter Core Strategy was agreed by a cross-party meeting of Full Council in February 2012; and the Monkerton Masterplan was consulted on in 2010, and duly adopted. However, what is not yet set is the density and design of developments, and the allowance for open spaces and community facilities within them. There is still much for people to examine and have their say on.

On 14th June a meeting was held with residents in the area immediately around the Hill Barton site to discuss ways of getting more involved in the planning process. As a result of that meeting, it was agreed that the Council would hold a community consultation event to allow residents to view and comment on current planning applications. This will also give residents the chance to raise important issues for the future development of site, including things like open spaces, housing density and housing styles, access and transport links. 

Make sure you have your say!

The consultation events will be held at St Lawrence Church, Lower Hill Barton Road on the following dates:

Monday 2nd July, 7.30pm - 9.30pm 
Thursday 5th July, 3.30pm - 7.30pm

This will allow residents time to submit responses to the planning applications before the earliest planning committee meeting on 23rd July. City Council planning officers will be available to answer questions at both these events, and officers from Devon County Council's Highways team have been invited.

You can view the Core Strategy, Masterplan and planning applications at the Civic Centre, Paris Street, or online:
www.exeter.gov.uk/corestrategy
www.exeter.gov.uk/monkerton
www.exeter.gov.uk/planning

There will be additional consultations shortly on developments around the Tithebarn Lane area, keep an eye on the local press and this blog for details. 


Finally, East Devon District Council are also considering applications for major developments at Pinn Court Farm and Old Park Farm, each of over 400 units. Exeter City Council has already expressed concern that one of these developments does not pay adequate attention to transportation issues, and we will be lobbying Tory-controlled EDDC to ensure that any developments over the border make allowances for the added pressures on transport infrastructure in Pinhoe. You can keep up to date with these developments at http://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/

Sleepwalking...?

Shaun (Simon Pegg) gloriously oblivious to the
catastrophe unfolding around him
[Universal Pictures 2004]

I have a guilty secret. I like zombies. Well, not so much the things themselves, but I have a modest collection of films, books and comic books all set on a post-apocalyptic earth where humans (the living ones) face a breakdown of all the systems they have previous relied on, fighting a daily battle for survival. 

There is something reassuringly formulaic about the genre. Most zombie stories start before things go so catastrophically wrong. The zombie-spoof movie "Shaun of the Dead" opens with the hero waking up, and sleepily stumbling his way to the electrical goods store where he works. All is normal it appears, and people are going about their lives. Yet every radio he passes, every TV in the shop, and every newspaper hoarding outside each shop is carrying a news story about the spread of a mysterious new virus. Yet it is never more than background chatter to Shaun, and he (along with everyone else) is unaware of the significance of the reports, and oblivious to the news as he sleepwalks towards his new destiny... 

Sometimes I feel a little like Shaun, stumbling through day-to-day living while seemingly every news bulletin carries a story - often lower down the news order - about some new disturbance in the national or global economic markets. Greek elections fail to secure a government that will see through austerity measures... Spanish banks may require a bailout... UK manufacturing index falls... billions wiped of global markets as US recovery stalls... all stories from the past few weeks that could be pointing to a wider storm that threatens to undermine the security we have all taken for granted, and to be propelling us to a harsher new world. 

Locals queue at a soup kitchen in Athens
[Guardian Newspaper Group, 2012]

Two years ago, my partner Jenny and I went to Athens for her birthday. It was a busy, bustling and glamorous city. The food and drink in the elegant bars and bistros were expensive, and designer outlets for every major western fashion house stood on every major street. Now the images coming out of Athens are of food banks, soup kitchens, riots and social upheaval. In April, a 77 year-old man committed suicide, shooting himself outside the Greek Parliament because, his note revealed, his dignity would not allow him to "search the garbage for food."

Greece still maybe feels a little distant from us, so Shaun-like we stumble on, the news of social unrest in Athens remains background noise. It couldn't happen here, could it? Maybe we sit up a little more when Spain is mentioned - after all, we have heard of Santander Bank. Still, it's the Eurozone. "Thank God we didn't join," we think, and go back to our cornflakes.

The present government came into power likening the UK deficit to a household budget that had been left vulnerable by too much spending on the family credit cards. After the harshest budget in a generation in June 2010, George Osborne "hit back at accusations that his spending cuts will plunge the economy into another recession" saying that he had "no choice" but to cut, and that  "...we are shaping the economy of the future by promoting a pro-growth agenda."

Spain next?

Less than two years on, the then-feted "Plan A" has failed. The UK is back in recession. Manufacturing is in free-fall. Greece may have this weekend seen the very close election of the pro-bailout New democracy Party to form a new coalition, but after initial relief, most observers feel even this step is still simply delaying the advance of the Eurozone "virus". How long the Greek people will stomach the levels of austerity demanded of them is anyone's guess, and prolonged and sustained social unrest could well bring any newly-formed government down quickly. Other economists say Greece is a mere sideshow, and the real threat is Spain's banks falling. Today, interest on Spanish government bonds exceeded 7% - above the "danger levels" that indicate a banking system in profound peril. The collapse of a Spanish bank would have global consequences, as the collapse of the Lehman Brothers Bank did in 2008.


And here's the point. This is a global economic market. Likening the economy of UK Plc to a household budget of overspent credit cards, storecards and overdrafts is crass, and simplistic. However, it provides a useful scare story if your true intention as a government is to promote cuts and austerity as the necessary "medicine" to get things right again, while pursuing a more ideological agenda of shrinking the state and public sector, and out-sourcing to the private corporations that fund your party. In a global economy, my spending is your income; and your spending mine. If we both simultaneously cut our spending, you become deprived of income, and so do I. The debt looks scarier when faced with this reduced income, so in panic we cut still deeper... You see the problem. The lesson of every good zombie story is that no one survives by simply barricading themselves in and seeing their resources deplete. They survive through co-operation, communication, and trading. 

Ed Balls has overtaken Osborne as most voters' preferred Chancellor
to handle the UK economy

The solution to the economic crisis is not more austerity. It is not working, and it will not work. The solution is to increase investment in the programmes and projects that will create social infrastructure, that will support growth, that will provide jobs to give nervous households greater income. As these businesses and households feel more hop and less fear, they will begin to spend and invest again themselves, and the ever-decreasing circle of austerity is reversed as once again my spending provides you with an income, and your spending provides for me. In France, the people have chosen a government with such a policy; and in the UK people are increasingly supporting Labour. Last week, for the first time, opinion polls started to show that most voters trust Ed Balls, not George Osborne, with our stuttering economy. 


The people of Greece are facing desperate times. Spain may soon follow. In the UK we still have choice - do not let the Tories tell you otherwise. There is a way to deliver growth and jobs, and Labour is arguing hard to see it made policy.  If you agree with us, join us

All different, all equal

It was so good to see Exeter's Respect festival even bigger and better yesterday, with well over 10,000 attending in a single day (and hopefully even more of the same today!) Exeter Respect is Exeter's largest annual cultural event, and celebrates our community in all its diversity, to increase awareness and understanding, and to challenge ignorance and prejudice.

Unplugged and colourful in the acoustic tent

Although Exeter has a non-white ethnic population of just 2.4% (according to the 2001 census) compared to an England & Wales average of 9.1%, the city nonetheless has significant communities of people of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern heritage. There are also significant numbers of people who are living and working here from Poland, Russia, Bulgaria and other Eastern European nations. 2.6% of our population who have a faith, describe themselves as "non-Christian", while 20.5% of us have "no religion." The city is fortunate to have a vibrant multi-cultural University that does so much to promote learning between people of different backgrounds, and the city's sizeable lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community contribute enormously to the city's economic, cultural and political life - including a strong annual Exeter Pride event.

One of the reasons I am most proud to live in Exeter, is that it is a city of tolerance and understanding, with a rich cultural scene that regularly showcases and celebrates arts, food and cultural life that orginates in - or is influenced by - other countries, races or communities. Organisations that would seek to divide us tend not to fare too well in our city, and I have happy memories of the day that Exeter's people - Christians, Jews and Muslims; trades unionists and students; men, women and children, turned out in numbers to embarrass a tiny cohort of EDL demonstrators. Exeter Respect is an extension of that spirit, and is a free, two-day festival held in Belmont Park to revel in the diversity of our city and to enjoy the added depth that this diversity brings. The strap line "All Different - All Equal" sums up the values of the weekend. 

To die for! A Hindu hearse at Respect.

Walking into the park, your senses are immediately engaged by a gamut of colours, noises, rhythms, smells, song, chatter and laughter. Aromas of the many foods on sale got my stomach rumbling almost immediately: Thai, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Eastern European, Mediterranean... Vegan, Vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free, kosher and halal (and even burgers and pizzas!) For those curious about faith and spirituality, there were colourful stalls staffed by adherents to Islam, Hinduism, Bah'ai, several strands of the Christian faith, spiritual healing, meditation, and shamanism. For those with little time for such ethereal pursuits, there was always the Devon Humanists' stand. Music catered for (almost) all tastes: acoustic to hip hop, folk to Samba, reggae, rock and roots; and the small craft and fashion stalls and other little retail outlets included everything from incense sticks to magic sticks, jewellery to massage oils, books, beads and banners. 

Part of the effective Amnesty display

Exeter Respect is a lot of fun - and there was a real party atmosphere throughout. The police were present (in fact they had a display) yet there presence was extremely low-key, and although well in excess of 10,000 people attended, I didn't see any trouble at all, nor did it look like there might be any. Maybe that is because Respect is a celebration of values - tolerance, understanding, peacefulness and, well, respect. Respect for the essential common value we all place on humanity - we may all be different, but we are all equal; no matter our nationality, our ethnicity, our (dis)ability, our sexuality, gender, and faith (or absence of faith.) So the festival also hosts organisations that have values that resonate with those of the festival itself - the Cooperative movement, trades unions, environmental and social campaigning organisations - all of them organisations that seek to celebrate common humanity, and that believe, as I do,  that communities like ours in Exeter are better when we come together, rather than when we allow prejudice, fear and ignorance to divide us. 

Cllr Roger Spackman, me & Jenny, Cllr Greg Sheldon &
Cllr Phil Bialyk