One injured in Exeter bombing

Unsurprisingly the bomb incident in Exeter's Princesshay yesterday lunchtime is the lead item of news here at the moment. In fact the first five pages of today's Western Morning News is devoted to it. So what do we know so far? An explosion happened in the toilet at 'The Giraffe' cafe at 12.50. One person received non life threatening facial injuries as a result of the blast, he is under police guard in hospital and I understand it will be next week before the police can talk to him in detail. He has been named as Nicky Reilly, a young man living in Plymouth and recently converted to Islam.

Not only is he being held by the police but they have unusually released information about him at a very early stage. They state that he has a history of mental illness and has been "radicalised". That this information was known by them at this point in time suggests they might have already had intelligence information about this chap. Praise has been heaped on the police for the quick and calm way they evacuated the immediate area; it seems that another explosive device was found nearby and subsequently made safe. We now learn that the bomb that went off consisted of chemicals and nails but apart from Mr Reilly no-one was injured.

Other information released relates to Reilly being seen with a rucksack on the bus from Plymouth to Exeter yesterday morning and a visit by the bomb squad to his home in Plymouth.

Finding the people behind this bombing attempt is evidently now a priority for the police.

5 o'clock UPDATE:
In connection with the Exeter incident police have now arrested a couple of men in the Old Town Street area of Plymouth.

New Princesshay recycles much of the old

Following on from the opening of Plymouth's Drake Circus development not so long ago today has seen the ribbon cut at the new look Princesshay in Exeter. Apparently it has some 60 or so shops, cafes and restaurants although a small number of these retail outlets have yet to be let. Interestingly it incorporates a number of flats, about 120 I believe. I'm a great believer in bringing housing into the centre of our cities, not that I would really want to live in a city myself. But for a city to be vibrant it needs people to live there 24/7 and not just be given over to the retail and office sectors.

Not being one in love with retail therapy I am not going to drop everything and dash off to Exeter but there are one or two of aspects of the new Princesshay worth commenting on. Firstly, a high proportion of the estimated 43,000 tonnes of waste coming from the demolition of the unremarkable old Princesshay has been crushed and then recycled into the new scheme. In fact about 40,000 tonnes or over 90%. This is fantastic. There seems to be a more conscious effort to reuse old material - it has always irked me to see old demolition material going to landfill and new construction using all virgin materials. Perhaps with landfill tax it is becoming a financial imperative to go down the environmental route, I don't know.

The other thing I want to mention (and I'm afraid this is a downside) is the appearance of the new higher buildings viewed from Exeter's Cathedral Green. It is not the architecture itself, possibly anything might be more inspiring than the previous nondescript look, but it's the fact that it now breaks the skyline looking across the Green whereas the older version did not. I have to thank John Evans at his website here for pointing this out. It seems that the decision makers never consider a development's appearance from a historically critical location. I think John's photos say it all really.

I'm not going to get into any sort of Exeter versus Plymouth argument thanks very much. Just to say that the two cities are distinctly different and that Princesshay with its addition of flats and being open air as opposed to the enclosed shopping centre at Drake Circus (well it does rain more at Plymouth!) has ensured that the differentiation continues. Hooray for that I say!

Cornwall and Exeter to be unitary authorities

Unsurprisingly the weather which led to such severe flooding in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire has been THE story of the past week but of course other events have been happening in the meantime. One such was the decision by the government to provisionally grant unitary status to Cornwall and to Exeter. Caradon and some of the other district councils in Cornwall had canvassed people's opinions as to the rightness of this proposal; I have to say I voted to retain the status quo.

Lets put aside my normal aversion to change for the moment. From an atlas it can be seen that Cornwall is much longer than it is wide. Geographically we are a long distance from Truro which is where the county council operate from. I am quite concerned that decision makers particularly in such matters as planning are going to be so far away.

Pause here while I check the road distance to Truro. It's just over 50 miles which is a fair distance. I'm just not comfortable with the decision making being that far away. Taking away one layer of bureaucracy should reduce council tax I must admit. But I'm always sceptical about the assumed value of such savings.

As to Exeter going it alone it's understandable that Devon County Council aren't too happy as the county will become proportionately more rural (I think it might leave Exmouth as its largest town). It would be interesting to know whether the County Council would retain County Hall which of course is in Exeter itself. Such a retention might not set a precedent because - and this is second hand information - Kingston upon Thames is still the seat of power for Surrey even though the town is now part of Greater London. I would have guessed it was Guildford rather than Kingston but what do I know!