This Is Our City Event RoundUp

To those who snagged tickets for the This Is Our City at RAMM last night, thank you for coming It was great to see so many of you there and we hope you had an interesting and enjoyable evening.

A huge thanks goes out to our speakers for some really informative talks:

Ian Collinson, Director of City Development at Exeter City Council opened the evening by saying that the Exeter Plan should not really be about ‘planning’ at all.

Maia Thomas, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion consultant stressed that those in marginalised groups must be included in any development.

She said: “It's so important that the differences in our community are recognised. The youth, people in poor health, and those living in poverty all have so much to say and the needs of our communities must be supported.”

David Hawes, Urban Designer and Rob Hilton, Hilton Barnfield Architects talked about their work developing a Toolkit for Future Placemaking in Exeter:

David said: “We wanted to try to create a way that people can make the process their own. A whole variety of people - people who enjoy the city, finding a new job in the city. All of these expressions of home and anticipation are the ways that we want to equip people to say 'this is our city'.”

Rob added: “The purpose of an event such as this is to introduce people to our journey, and to ask them to talk to their own communities and networks about what’s important to them. Planning doesn’t always reach the people that it needs to, and we’ve got to make an effort to reach everybody who lives, works, study and visits our great city so that they can help us to shape it in the future.”

Councillor Emma Morse, Exeter City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Councillor for Planning and City Development said that those responsible for delivering this vision and plan are committed to ensuring that everybody in Exeter has a say in what’s important to them.

“The importance of this event is that it’s not just us telling people how we are going to develop but ensuring that we have the input and engagement of those most affected by this development. To do this, we need everybody to get involved in the Exeter Plan.”

Liveable Exeter is a once in a generation opportunity for all of us to reimagine our city to ensure Exeter’s rich legacy continues for future generations.

Find out more about Liveable Exeter at ww.liveableexeter.co.uk or follow on social media for regular updates.