Exeter Meeting House. Photo: Chris Dent.
Planning decision a further blow for Exeter Quakers
Plans for a building neighbouring Exeter Meeting House has been given the backing of the local council
Exeter Friends have expressed their disappointment over the city council’s decision to allow the building of a hotel next to the Meeting house. It is the latest twist in a saga that has gone on for several years.
A former hospital car park site next to the Meeting house had originally been approved for the construction of offices, but the application was changed to include a mixed hotel and office development. The hotel was duly built, with Friends experiencing two years of noise, damage to the Meeting house roof and a crane extending over the garden. When it was finished, Exeter Quaker Chris Dent told the Friend, they ‘breathed a sigh of relief’.
Later, however, the developers decided that the office element would not be profitable and applied for planning permission to build it as a budget hotel. The application was unsuccessful, following a campaign by Friends and others, as reported in the Friend (25 March).
In the latest twist an amended plan presented by the developers won backing from the council. Chris said: ‘The budget hotel now had some rooms with no daylight and others with obscure glazing. The building was reduced to within 200 millimetres of the original office height, although the floor area provided was forty-one per cent larger. Importantly, they had a new report which purported to show that the office market in Exeter was dead and that if they didn’t get permission now the site would remain unbuilt for years.’
