Express & Echo (City & East Devon Edition)
Popular field may become community park
HISTORIC campaigning has potentially resulted in a playing field being returned to a community.
A battle to save Mount Radford Lawn Playing Field began in 2019 when the Deaf Academy, which owns the land in St Leonard’s, worked with Burrington Estates on a proposal to build eight family homes on the site.
The plan was refused by Exeter City Council, and St Leonard’s Neighbourhood Association successfully applied to have it listed as an asset of community value. The owner asked for a review, but the council did not change its mind.
The Deaf Academy then took the matter to a tribunal, but the judge dismissed its appeal in January 2021. The land has remained redundant ever since, with residents still fighting for it to be returned to the community.
Last week the school, which relocated from Exeter to Exmouth in 2020, announced plans for a comprehensive feasibility study to potentially transform Mount Radford Lawn into a “multi-functioning, multi-use space that meets the needs of the wide-ranging community”.
It has commissioned an independent professional, who helped establish the successful Park Life community space in Exeter’s Heavit- ree Pleasure Ground, to liaise with stakeholders.
The academy said the project will tie in with its bicentennial celebrations in 202 and will have an emphasis on celebrating the deaf community, deaf culture and deaf identity.
Principal Sylvan Dewing said: “We are now researching how we could create both a permanent legacy as a long-standing provider of deaf edu- cation, as well as an attractive, vibrant and sustainable community space.”
The feasibility study plans have been welcomed by residents in St Leonard’s who have tirelessly campaigned for the green space to be able to be used for what they say was its original purpose.
Nigel Fitzhugh, chairman of St Leonard’s Neighbourhood Association, said: “The St Leonard’s Neighbourhood Association is extremely pleased that the Deaf Academy has now decided to not try to sell the Mount Radford Lawn Playing Field for development.
“It seems a long time that we and the community of St Leonard’s have been making every effort to protect it as the playing field that it was always intended to be since the Deaf and Dumb Institution bought it in 1910.
“We are not feeling triumphant; we are feeling grateful to (the academy) and we are looking forward to working with it and others to put its aspirations into reality. It sounds very exciting to be involved in creating this multi-functioning, multi-use space.
“We have already had constructive meetings with Ben Hunt of ParkLife Heavitree. It would be lovely if the Deaf Academy was to open the locked gates for a summer event announcing their commitment to their plans to the public.”
The feasibility study will take place during April and May and then a feasibility report will be produced in June, with key recommendations for the future of Mount Radford Lawn.
A school for deaf pupils was established in Exeter in 182. It has been known by different names including the Deaf and Dumb Institution and Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education. It is now called the Deaf Academy and is a registered charity.
Anyone wishing to engage in the feasibility study can email mrl@ thedeafacademy.ac.uk, stating their interest.