Building our Collective Commons
Part of our report on green infrastructure across the ward area: developing a timeline of photography as a cumulative body of evidence contributed by the community in a citizen science approach
Note: steep concrete steps interrupt the lane to make way for the main Tithebarn Way road. This makes the route inaccessible for many local residents
FAILURE OF FORMAL PROTECTION : Latest photos evidence the terrible state of hedgerows bordering the Sandrock site in Monkerton.
Part of Pinhoe Forum’s report on green infrastructure across the ward area: developing a timeline of photography as a cumulative body of evidence contributed by the community in a citizen science approach
These sunken lanes form a wildlife network that once connected to the Monkerton Ridgeline; now they have been breached, broken and on one border, entirely – and illegally – removed during nesting season. When Pinhoe’s City Councillor David Harvey brought this illegal activity to the attention of authorities including Exeter City Council’s planning committee, the ‘lack of evidence’ was noted and dismissed without action.
Protection for local green infrastructure and the importance of landscape sensitivity in this development area was formalised in the Monkerton and Hill Barton Masterplan, approved by ECC in 2010 as “a framework to guide the future development of a sustainable urban extension to the north east of the city”. The rural character of Monkerton was to provide ‘a guide to how each part of the area should be developed in order to create a distinctive and diverse development that responds to the areas unique location and character’.
The Masterplan specified:
— retaining and positively integrating the sunken green lanes as a unifying network within development
— positively incorporating mature trees and hedgerows/hedgebanks as a part of development or green infrastructure, helping to create a permanence and richness to the environment
Full document available here: https://exeter.gov.uk/planning-services/major-schemes/monkerton-hill-barton-masterplan/
Beginning with HIGHER FIELD
Pinhoe’s historic Ridgeline is visible across Exeter. Views of our treescape stretch far beyond the city and underpin the distinctiveness not only of Pinhoe, but of Exeter itself.
Dedicated local residents have photographed Pinhoe’s green skyline from a range of vantage points. They’re documenting resident and visiting wildlife species to evidence biodiversity within the field and the vital importance of its connection to adjacent wildlife corridors and green spaces, themselves under threat of development.
This citizen science is both compelling and heartening – families of deer continue to roam and the number of visiting birds increases as the year progresses. Summer months see the return of glow worms as part of the density of biodiversity in this grassland – previously underestimated as habitat but increasingly recognised as essential infrastructure, central to the sustainability of local biodiverse ecologies.
Problems with Planning Protocols
In the context of Exeter City Council’s planning strategy, Pinhoe has been overwhelmed by serial housing development. Every inch of ground has been exploited. Historic holloways have been obliterated, wildlife corridors cut in two by major roads, hedgerows disappeared, disconnected and fragmented, trees removed without replacements.
Frustrated by an opaque planning system, Pinhoe’s residents have demanded greater protection for green spaces and all green infrastructure locally. This sense of concern is shared by many across the city. The fragility of Higher Field’s future and all its wildlife is cause for wider alarm and urgent action.
Opportunities for NEW THINKING
After the unprecedented pandemic, when access to green space and wildlife habitats proved essential for everyone, going for a walk and observing nature have become effective prescriptions to support and protect wellbeing.
Complex relationships between the health of communities and their relationship to where they live are now widely recognised. The significance of locality in shaping a community’s economic outcomes – the physical fabric of a place, its amenities and economic infrastructures – is now underpinned by an urgency of evidence indicating that a community’s sense of place and the wellbeing of its residents are intimately and fundamentally connected. Opportunities for a new “wealth economy” which incorporates natural and social assets, are emerging and increasingly influential.
Working with local residents alongside the new Exeter Greenspaces Group (EGG), we’ve been developing a NEW VISION for the Northern Hills – to protect its longterm future as a unique resource for the city.