Objectors claim 65 Exeter homes will change skyline

No public supporters for Nadder Park Road yet

Plans to build 65 homes in green fields overlooking Exeter have prompted objections from locals who say part of the city’s skyline will be changed forever.

Developer Waddeton Park wants to build ‘high quality’ homes off Nadder Park Road, with around 20 of them likely to be in the lower-priced bracket.

A website dedicated to the development says the project will have ‘well-designed contemporary housing’ that also recognises the importance of the site’s green spaces. 

It will, if passed by planners, combine detached and semi-detached homes with small terraces and ‘barns’.

A planning application has just been lodged with the city council.

The website goes on: “A key objective of the overall design is to blend developed areas with the surrounding landscape – establishing a sensitive transition between built form and environment.”

The site is close to the Barley Valley nature reserve, and the developer plans an area for ‘biodiversity and habitat enhancement’ in fields opposite the new homes.

But people living nearby have already lodged objections to the plan.

All of the public comments uploaded to the council’s planning portal so far are objections.

One objector writes: “One of Exeter’s biggest assets is its setting – the hills, ridgelines, and green spaces around the city. They give Exeter its character and identity. The Exeter Plan is clear that we should protect the treed and open skylines, avoid breaching ridgelines, and keep development well below the natural skyline.

“This proposal would break that rule. It would put new buildings where the skyline should remain open.”

Another says: “The proposed site is a towering development at 300 feet above sea level that overshadows all other surrounding residences.”

Other objectors cite poor transport links and the absence of local shops.