Author: portfoliofive

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PINHOE VILLAGE

FORUM AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT
In 2019, members of the new Pinhoe Village history group raised urgent concerns about the loss of local wildlife and the density and speed of local housing development

A sub-group elected as the Pinhoe Forum began to investigate the neighbourhood planning process with a steering group including representatives from Pinhoe’s community groups, charities and local councillors.

In first meetings with Exeter City Council, officers outlined the considerable demands and difficulties of undertaking Neighbourhood Planning and suggested working with the Council on a project basis instead.

BOUNDARY COMPLICATIONS
Pinhoe’s boundaries raise problems in defining the neighbourhood area: Pinhoe’s community field and Scout Hut cross into East Devon, residential streets are split in two by the district boundary and Westclyst, considered part of Pinhoe’s community despite being in East Devon, is already part of the Broadclyst Neighbourhood Plan and cannot be included.

TRAFFIC
The Forum’s Sustainable Travel Group held a public Traffic Meeting in February 2020, to discuss the community’s traffic concerns. Well supported by over 70 local residents, the meeting was also attended by County Councillor Hilary Ackland, Co-Cars and the Exeter Cycling Campaign.

This was followed by a Traffic Survey, completed by more than 160 people locally with over 170 detailed comments (see survey results, here).

Pinhoe Forum began a Community Speedwatch Team between lockdowns which was taken up by the local County Councillor in June 2022; volunteers continue to monitor traffic levels across Pinhoe, building a citizens science evidence base.

In 2021, Pinhoe Forum secured funding from Vision Zero for a mobile Speed Activation unit following consultation which identified residents’ safety concerns in three main areas: Main Road, Tithebarn Way and Harrington Lane. Full survey report here

COVID 2020-22
A month after Pinhoe’s Traffic Meeting, the Covid pandemic became a national emergency. When lockdowns were announced in March 2020, members of both the Forum and Pinhoe Village set up the Community Support Helpline. Quickly established with over 70 volunteers, the Helpline team stepped up to support the community when other local membership organisations were shielding and unable to operate.

GREEN SPACES
Higher Field on Church Hill was threatened with extended development in 2021 and Pinhoe Forum was approached by local residents keen to coordinate a community response. The Forum launched a petition which was supported by over 2100 signatories from across Exeter, triggering the opportunity to present our case for the field’s protection to a full council meeting. Following unanimous support by Council members, Pinhoe’s petition was sent for further examination by the Scrutiny Committee.

Working with Exeter Greenspaces Group (EGG) and local residents, Pinhoe Forum proposed a Ridgeline Park across the Northern Hills, connecting Exeter’s Mincinglake Valley Park to the Clyst Valley Park in East Devon, as an urban nature recovery network. Further info here

POST-PANDEMIC
Following continuing support for the Community Helpline and a dedicated volunteering team, the Pinhoe Village group is transitioning to a new community enterprise: www.pinhoevillage.org

Pinhoe Forum remains a Forum for Ideas. This public information resource is being developed as a Knowledge Exchange project by Kate Jago, working with the Pinhoe Citizens Panel: researching, commissioning and collecting evidence to inform and support a collective approach to decision-making. 

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Eastern Fields’ Village Green

Here’s some info about the 2016 campaign to stop a road cutting through Eastern Fields:

“We are a group of local residents who are fighting to save an urban green oasis & register it as a village green to keep it safe for future generations.
Eastern fields is a much used and valued green space between Exhibition Way and Harrington Lane, Pinhoe Exeter. It is surrounded by housing estates and industrial land. It has been used since the 1950’s for informal recreation. In recent years the city council has spent thousands of pounds in planting young trees to encourage wildlife and these areas of trees are growing well and the birds, insects and animals have all moved into their new habitat. It also has a new and much used cycle path linking two primary schools as well as other destinations and is valued for the safety and peacefulness of the route. It is a tranquil and pleasant environment. It is a place where children have played for generations, whether ball games or building dens. Eastern Fields is a green space in an urban environment. It is valued for all the benefits that green and open spaces give to people.
There are massive developments planned for the eastern side of the city and Eastern Fields will be even more needed as green space. The area is important to our community and we do not want to lose it. It is a unique and beautiful place and part of our local history. Our city council is planning a link road through the field as well as industrial development on the lower half. We do not believe it is necessary to have industrial development on this land given the extent of land in the surrounding area already being developed for industrial use. Neither do we believe that the proposed road would solve Pinhoe’s traffic problems to the extent that merits the loss of such valuable recreation land and wildlife habitat. As people and residents who value the field we are therefore campaigning to try to preserve and protect it.”

The campaign video has some brilliant shots of the connection to Cheynegate Lane and you can just about see the walk to the top fields >

CAMPAIGN VIDEO

You can also see the connection through to the business park, with a clear view of the track for the proposed Highways Link Road >

We’re looking for documents which evidence the process of campaigning, as well as Council planning and appeal – please get in touch if you can help with this #localexpertise! mail@portfoliofive.co.uk

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Northern Hills Campaign

The campaign begins HERE > Trees, hedges and fields along the top of Pinhoe are full of history, from Armada Beacons to Saxon Hoards and battle sites. They’re a network for wildlife and safeguard biodiversity in bramble-wild spaces.

Cheynegate Lane, tracking along the boundary fringe, is a magnificent holloway and one of the very few remaining (almost) intact in Pinhoe. Along its edges you can trace evidence of the Crackington Formation: deep time geology connecting all the way to the Jurassic coast, with resources of clay famously exploited by Pinhoe’s Brickworks.

The top of the village has magnificent views of the Exe estuary, which often surprise visitors from the rest of the city. When the wind blows in, you can breathe the sea air.

Local people walk these fields every day. Paths and bridleways are well worn and much loved. There are footpaths connecting to Beacon Heath, lined with fantastic high Devon hedgerows bursting with biodiversity along a quiet road which would make a wonderful Green Lane.

That’s why our campaign begins here: to protect these natural resources for all our community we need a STRATEGIC PLAN.

BUT THE CAMPAIGN IS FOR ALL OF PINHOE > Take a look at the holloway in Monkerton, along historic Pinn Lane which has been cut in two, cutting off safe access for pedestrians and cyclists, degraded by developers loading soil to its edge until sections collapse.

This is what it looked like in May 2019
And this is what it looked like in February 2020, with soil from the Sandrock development stored right up to its edge and collapsing through to the path

And Gypsy Hill Lane – look at the concrete steps which cut this historic path in two! The road at the top is one of the main routes into East Devon and was designed, agreed and put in place by the Monkerton Masterplan.

This was already happening in July 2019 and no amount of conversations with the site manager of Linden Homes was getting anything done to safeguard this beautiful lane

If you have photos to document the destruction of Pinhoe’s network of historic paths and hedgerows, please get in touch: mail@portfoliofive.co.uk