East Devon Local Plan · Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton
EXMO20: the wrong place for 700 homes
East Devon District Council's draft Local Plan includes allocation EXMO20: about 700 homes on farmland at St John's, between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton, right next to the internationally protected East Devon Pebblebed Heaths. We're local residents, and we think it should come out of the plan. You don't have to take our word for it: our case is built from the council's own public meetings.
New here? EXMO20 in two minutes
- What is it?
- An allocation in East Devon District Council's draft Local Plan for "around 700" homes, with employment land and community uses, on farmland at St John's.
- Where is it?
- On the north-east edge of Exmouth, between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton, next to the protected Pebblebed Heaths. The main road access would come from the B3179. (See the site)
- Who's behind it?
- The developer, 3West, is preparing a planning application; its own plan shows "circa 750 homes". The council has decided any application will need a full Environmental Impact Assessment.
- Why do residents object?
- Harm to the Heaths hasn't been ruled out, the site failed the council's own assessment, access and sewage haven't been shown to work, and Historic England says it could cause considerable harm to the setting of a grade II* listed church. (The nine grounds)
- What happens next?
- The Strategic Planning Committee meets on 1 December and full Council on 9 December 2026. The council's own report says the plan must be submitted this calendar year to go ahead under the current transitional rules. An independent Planning Inspector then examines it.
- What can I do?
- Sign the petition, write to your councillors, and come to the meetings. (What you can do)
What is EXMO20?
EXMO20 (the council writes it Exmo_20, and you may also see Exmo 20) is the council's reference for a large housing allocation on the north-east edge of Exmouth, around the hamlet and church of St John in the Wilderness. The main road access would come from the B3179, which runs alongside the Pebblebed Heaths. The Heaths are home to rare ground-nesting birds such as the nightjar and Dartford warbler, and are protected by law in the UK.
The site had been rejected in the council's own assessment, and the officers' report to the committee recommended against allocating the whole site (it supported only a 150-home southern part). At the Strategic Planning Committee on 3 September 2024, members voted to put it in the plan anyway, while officers said further work would be needed first. In both public consultations since, EXMO20 has drawn more responses than any other site: about 1,110 of 3,510, then 1,672 of 3,114. Natural England, the RSPB, Devon Wildlife Trust and Historic England have all raised serious concerns (see the evidence).
The case in plain words
1The protected Heaths
Officers say harm to the Pebblebed Heaths from traffic pollution can't yet be ruled out. National policy and good practice favour avoiding harm first, and removing sites is one way to do that.
2It failed the test
EXMO20 failed the council's own site assessment and was a rejected site. It was added before the evidence was in.
3Alternatives
The replacements for EXMO20 that officers put to members were all other Exmouth sites, although Exmouth has no housing target of its own.
4Access and sewage
Where the access road from the B3179 would go is not known, and it would have to cross the 400 m protection zone. The evidence on sewage is still being redone.
5A listed church
The site surrounds the grade II* listed church of St John in the Wilderness. Historic England says the plan is "Unsound" because of the harm to its setting.
6Housing numbers
The sites officers recommended in 2024, which included only a small part of this site, already met the housing requirement, and the requirement has since fallen by 563 homes.
7"Significant change"
EXMO20 is kept because removing it would be a "significant change", but we have found no published definition of that phrase.
8Evidence and consultation
The plan went out for consultation with key evidence unfinished, and responses were summarised with AI.
9In their own words
Committee members themselves have said EXMO20 shouldn't have been included.
See the quotes and recordings behind each point →
The council's arguments for EXMO20, and our answers →
Check the record yourself
We transcribed 28 recordings of the council's Strategic Planning Committee and Full Council, from September 2024 to October 2026. For each meeting you can see who attended, what we found, and what the official minutes left out. There's also the full transcript, with every mention of EXMO20 highlighted and a link to the exact moment in the recording.