About Us

The St. David’s Neighbourhood Partnership was originally formed in 2003 by residents and local businesses in the St. David’s Hill area of Exeter, Devon.  This was largely to address the threat of losing the community centre, but its scope soon broadened into covering areas of common concern to the ever growing membership. From this, members met at length to create and agree the founding neighbourhood vision statement.

The association has a formal constitution which requires that it elects a committee from its members once a year at an annual general meeting (AGM). Following this election, the members meet to revisit the vision statement and determine priorities for the coming year.
The committee is then charged to focus its efforts according to those priorities and report back to the members via the periodic newsletters and the chair’s report to the AGM.

In 2007 the association took on its current name having originally been known as the St David' Residents and Businesses Association.  It felt that the association's name should convey a belief and practice of working in partnership at all levels and amongst ourselves as residents and businesses.  The main challenge being that of forging partnerships with outside agencies and public bodies, such as Exeter City Council and Devon County Council. 

At the heart of the vision statement and every subsequent annual revision by our members is the regeneration of the Community Centre.  The belief is that we could effect so much more for our neighbourhood by having the centre run on commercially sound principles by our own accountable community trust. Our community centre vision and business proposals for refurbishment funding (known as RAISE) detail the proposed development project.

Proposed changes in the way that local government operates (see the Department of Communities and Local Government website) mean that local communities who are well organised can expect to have a significantly greater influence on matters affecting their areas than in the past. Following a successful  application to take part, we worked with Exeter City Council and Exeter Community Initiatives as a pilot neighbourhood engagement area to discover just how this can be achieved.  This was a successful piece of work, a landmark initiative by the city council council that we hope will soon be followed up by the promised common engagement strategy.

One that permits open and genuine community involvement.

Revised February 2009