Stop EXMO20

Open questions

Questions we're asking

Some of the evidence that decides EXMO20's future hasn't been published yet. These are the documents we're asking the council and other bodies to make public, so that councillors, residents and the Planning Inspector can all see them before decisions are made.

Information about air quality, habitats and the environment counts as environmental information, so anyone can ask for it under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. You don't need to give a reason, and the council normally has to reply within 20 working days.

Air quality and the Pebblebed Heaths

  1. The 2026 air quality modelling. The council's consultants updated their modelling in 2026, and Natural England challenged it (officers' report, 22 September 2026, para 3.14). We're asking for the updated report and Natural England's written comments on it.
  2. The 2026 ecological surveys of the heathland beside the B3179 (Withycombe Raleigh Common and Bystock), commissioned in 2026 with results expected in mid-September.
  3. Any update to the Habitats Regulations Assessment since November 2025.
  4. Natural England's standard air quality advice referred to in its January 2026 consultation response as an attachment. The attachment isn't in the council's online library.
  5. Devon County Council's traffic forecasts behind its figure of 2,536 extra vehicles a day on the B3179, 2,235 of them from EXMO20.

How EXMO20 was chosen

  1. The approval record for the 2024 Site Selection Methodology. Which meeting or decision approved it, and when its wording on sites that failed the HELAA changed from the May 2022 version.
  2. The highways work since September 2024 that led officers to conclude EXMO20 could be delivered, including the assessments of access from the B3179 and St John's Road.
  3. The 3 September 2024 committee report and map, and the later correction of the site boundary recorded in the July 2026 minutes.

Water, sewage and agreements

  1. The updated Water Cycle Study (expected October 2026) and the Environment Agency's and South West Water's comments on it.
  2. Signed Statements of Common Ground with Natural England, the Environment Agency, Devon County Council and Historic England. The drafts are unsigned.
  3. East Devon National Landscape's own response to the first consultation, which isn't in the council's library.
  4. The papers for the 1 December 2026 committee and 9 December 2026 full Council, where submission of the plan is expected to be decided.

Ask for them yourself

You can ask East Devon District Council for any of these yourself, by email or through its access to information pages. Asking politely and precisely works best, for example: "Please provide the updated 2026 Ricardo air quality report for the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths and any written comments from Natural England on it."

When documents are published, we'll add them to the evidence.