Exeter City Council shows the redesigned £6m Wonford hub on 24 and 25 September. The police design adviser has repeated concerns the new plans do not answer.
Exeter City Council is opening Wonford Community Centre on Thursday and Friday this week so residents can see the redesigned Community Wellbeing Hub. Both days run from 10am to 4pm, and some of the project team will be there. (Exeter City Council, 21 September 2026)
The drop-in matters more than its billing suggests. The plans on the table are not the ones the council won permission for. They are a smaller, cheaper version, and the formal window to comment on them closes days after the doors shut.
The practical details
- Where: the existing Wonford Community Centre, Burnthouse Lane, EX2 6NF
- When: Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September, 10am to 4pm on both days
- What is there: the drawings, feedback forms, and members of the team
- If you cannot get there: the drawings and feedback forms stay at the centre afterwards, or you can email hello@liveandmove.co.uk
Councillor Duncan Wood, the council’s lead for leisure services and healthy living, said the days “give everybody an opportunity to come and find out more, and to be part of the conversation if they haven’t already”.
What is actually being proposed
The application is 26/1216/VOC, lodged on 12 August 2026. It varies condition 2 of the permission granted in February 2025, so that new drawings replace the approved ones.
The council’s own description of the work, as it appears on the consultation papers, is the refurbishment of the Wonford Sports Centre and Community and Learning Centre, including the demolition of the existing gym, the Phoenix Centre and the outdoor changing rooms, and the construction of a new hub and FA changing facilities. The new hub is to hold a cafe, changing facilities, a studio and a gym.
The changes being sought are listed on the same papers: reduce the building footprint, revise the layout, change the elevations, omit rooflights and sun tunnels, relocate the refuse store and amend the landscaping. (Exeter City Council, documents for 26/1216/VOC)
We reported the detail of the redesign on 9 September. The new extension loses about 160 square metres of internal floor area, the cafe is set back and smaller, and glazing is cut on three elevations. The applicant’s cover letter put the reason as aligning the scheme with “updated project requirements and budget”. Our report on the revised plans sets out what goes and why.
The police design adviser has asked twice
Four consultees have replied so far, and one reply goes further than the others.
Kris Calderhead, Designing Out Crime Officer at Exeter police station, wrote on behalf of Devon and Cornwall Police on 7 September. He did not object. He did ask for a list of points to be considered, “given the relatively high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the locality and linked to the Centre”.
He also noted that the points about “graffiti / blank elevations and the reception area have been raised previously, however, I have included them again for information”. In other words, he had asked before, and the redesign did not answer him.
His annotated plan raises four things:
- The reception desk. He would put it closer to the main entrance and lobby to supervise the approach and control access to the rest of the centre, “rather than doubling as a staff area for the cafe”.
- An undefined space. Its “purpose and ownership” is “somewhat ambiguous which can lead to misuse”, with no boundary between public open space and land the centre owns. He asks how misuse will be handled “during hours of darkness and overnight when legitimate activity is absent”.
- Blank elevations. These are “vulnerable to graffiti which will have a significant detrimental effect on the Centre”. He suggests an anti-graffiti glaze, a sacrificial coating, or planting to protect the facades.
- The refuse store, relocated under these plans, “must be robust enough to prevent unauthorised access to protect against arson, ASB etc”.
None of that appears in the council’s invitation to the drop-in.
The other three replies
- Devon County Council’s flood team answered on 22 September, the most recent response on file. Officer Hock Lee raised “no in-principle objections” on surface water drainage, but asked for a pre-commencement condition requiring a detailed surface water management scheme and a maintenance plan for the lifetime of the building before any work starts.
- South West Water replied on 15 September. It flagged a public 1,050mm surface water sewer and a public 600mm combined sewer near the site, and said it must be told about building work within 5 metres of the first or 3.5 metres of the second. It also said the applicant should show surface water is discharged as high up the drainage hierarchy as is practicable.
- Environmental Health replied on 10 September. Principal officer Georgina Fox had “no comments to make”.
A photograph on the file records the site notice going up on 3 September.
What it means for you
If you want a say on the smaller hub, this week is the moment. When we checked the register on 9 September it gave 27 September as the date responses were due and 21 October as the determination deadline. That puts the comment window two days after the drop-in ends.
On 23 September the application was still listed as Pending Consideration, so nothing has been decided. (Exeter City Council, application summary)
Do not expect a public vote. Exeter’s planning committee has not met since 3 August and does not meet again until 12 October, so a decision inside the October deadline would be taken by officers under delegated powers.
Comments made at the drop-in go to the project team. Comments that the case officer must take into account go on the planning register, against 26/1216/VOC. If you want your view on the record, put it there as well.
You can follow the application and others like it on our Exeter planning news page.
Sources
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