Exeter continues its sustained trend of growth - at least that's the plan

Tonight a further two mammoth development projects for Exeter have been approved. The first is a 380 job Ikea just off the M5 next to Sandy Park. The second is a large Morrison's store as part of the major redevelopment of Police HQ at Middlemoor.

These two major employment and retail centres can surely only be good for Exeter and combined with the continuing, if apparently stilted, development of the Science Park, the more progressive development of Sky Park and the seemingly unstoppable growth at Cranbrook it is without doubt that Exeter is the largest development hub in the region.

However, the giving of the green light to Ikea and Morrison's is only the beginning. Let's not forget that development of a major Sainsbury's Distribution Centre between the Science Park and Cranbrook simply stopped when the supermarket giant claimed that it no longer suited their current plans to develop there. That site this remains empty. Such a farce could too easily be repeated with these new ventures.

I would be very interested to know how that can be avoided. Exeter is a great city, with massive potential. I'm sure that in the next 10-20 years the recent spell of growth will only continue and perhaps be almost unrecognisable. That will certainly be the case if even only half of plans currently in the pipeline come into fruition.

I hope that the plans approved today bring nothing but success and prosperity to Exeter. It really is a great city and the fact that such successful and high profile companies are choosing it as a place to invest is testament to that fact.

[Pictures; top down: Ikea planning sketch, Morrison's planning sketch, Cranbrook planning sketch, Sainsbury's land]