About Us

What is Exmouth Matters?

Local residents of Exmouth have created Exmouth Matters as an experiment to capture good ideas from residents for the improvement of the town.  Residents can propose ideas for the town centre or for public spaces like parks, details of which would be posted on this Exmouth Matters website and its Facebook page.

If the responses from local residents to the ideas are positive, then the originator of the idea can take it to whichever council could be involved in its delivery.

In recent years residents have become fatigued and despondent over large, consultant driven projects that have failed to materialise or whose proposed changes were not appropriate to the town or what the townsfolk wanted. 

In summary Exmouth Matters provides an opportunity to learn about and comment on projects which may affect us all. It has been created to:

• Create a feel-good factor in the town that small improvements can be agreed and delivered;

• Provide an online space where good ideas can be detailed and presented to the town’s residents for either their support or disapproval;

• Promote ideas that focus on improvements in the town which have been overlooked by East Devon District Council and/or Devon County Council which are currently an eyesore or where repairs are needed;

• Link details of ideas to a dedicated Facebook page of the same name;

• Show that ideas that gain a high level of positive responses can be put forward to the respective council for funding/approval and a date to commence the work;

• Attract organisations or individuals who would be willing to get involved in delivering an idea; 

• Report on the progress of ideas/their completion on this website and on Facebook.

So this initiative seeks to provide a pathway for making improvements in Exmouth that are of benefit to the whole community.  Exmouth Matters seeks to sound out public opinion  on projects at as early a stage as possible before they reach a stage where modification is impossible and to make the results available to the originators. 

We should add that there is no need to divulge any personal information, and no need to join formally or to pay a subscription. At present we are a small group of Exmouth residents - currently Marcia Fletcher, John Hunt and John Petty.

Extra information

Exmouth Matters has been created to a feel-good factor in that we can all have an opportunity to give our  opinions on projects at as early a stage as possible before they reach a stage where modification is impossible - so that changes that are made reflect what Exmouth wants and needs.

We are doing this by:-

• Providing this website where proposals can be circulated to Exmothians for comment via a very simple reply system. All responses are automatically logged to give a quick feel for the response.

• Making results available publicly so that feedback can be used to give support to our councils and to persuade them to add really popular plans to their “wish list”

• Reporting on progress.

Action

So if you think that Exmouth Matters is a good idea, please fill in the questionnaire form (to follow)

Background information

This initiative has come about as a result as a result of Levelling Up Fund’s Gateway Project which was finally abandoned in May 2024 and was a lost opportunity to make much needed improvements to the station area for which the enormous sum of £4 million was available.  It failed due to the lack of proper consultation and the determination of the County Council to push ahead which was very poor on detail, concentrated on areas which were not a problem and ignored those which urgently require attention,  This was despite the two consultations attracting over 800 responses and some of which offered sensible alternatives.

Public consultations in most cases involve considerable expense: hire of premises, production of material for display,  use of consultants,  advertising and analysis afterwards.

This is a virtually zero cost option!