Presentation analysis
Figure 4presents that most sites in Sheffield were affected by structural damage, broken glass in windows and broken gutters. All sites suffered from the same amounts of deterioration of walls, the score for each one was 2 – little deterioration.
My results imply that some areas of Sheffield City Centre are deteriorating, this could be because structural damage will get worse, costing more in the long term. This means that Sheffield City Centre will eventually have to invest in a lot of money in order renovate places such as Pinstone Street and Debenhams which have the highest score. Debenhams may have been badly affected from weathering; due to it being outdoors, but more importantly Debenhams has moved to Meadowhall, this means that more money may be spent on the store in Meadowhall, as more customers will be attracted there, so investment may have declined at the Debenhams in Sheffield. The Moor has one of the lower scores because “redevelopment was completed during the summer of 2005”, this means that it has had less time to suffer from weathering and less time for people to cause damage, so it is likely to score higher in the index of decay compared to other areas in Sheffield.
At Meadowhall, although the structural damage and displaced roof material was high, this could be due to renovation work. Most of the locations have scored 0 for many of the variables, this presents a positive development and impact on the local area.
Linking to the case study question: ‘why has the development of out-of-town retail services in your chosen area caused conflict?’ I think the main reasoning for conflict was that Meadowhall has taken most of the customers out of the city-centre, which has caused for business, trade and income to quickly decline. Independent and local stores may have had to shut down due to the lack of customers; when the income was lost the buildings and areas in Sheffield may nothave been able to be properly maintained, however this has changed recently with the investment at the Moor, meaning that customers were re-attracted into the area. This could be in order to ameliorate standards with places such as Meadowhall.
This radar graph shows street appearance and shopping quality within Meadowhall. Most of Meadowhall has scorings of ‘1’ or ‘2’ for most categories. This implies that shopping qualities in general in Meadowhall are of a high quality. The highest average that we collected was for the Entrance to Next, this scored approximately ‘1.1’ as an average, this could be because Next is a comparison store which sells high order goods, therefore the quality of goods would be high. However, in contrast to this, the entrance to the Oasis and Boots had a lower overall average.
This graph implies that Meadowhall has had a large impact on Sheffield City Centre, as the shopping quality is much higher, and Sheffield would find it hard to compete.
This Sheffield radar graph shows that there is a mixture of results; some sites scored highly (negatively) for the quality of goods and street cleanliness;this could be as a result of the lack of income due to the opening of Meadowhall. The highest average that we collected was for Debenhams, this scored ‘2’ as an average in contrast to the Moor and Fargate, which scored approximately ‘1.86.’ Overall Debenhams actual shopping quality was worse than other stores because the main Debenhams was moved to Meadowhall, so the money may be focused on investments for the larger store, so that the smaller store in the Moor is in decline.
This bar chart shows ranging scores of ‘2’ to ’78.’ The highest score that we collected was for the Arundel Gate, which attracted approximately 78 customers within the space of three minutes, in contrast to Debenhams which only attracted 2 people within the space of three minutes. This could be as a result of the structural appearance being much more presentable at the Arundel Gate, making it much more appealing for people to go. However, as seen from the index of decay, Debenhams suffered from structural damage, displaced roof material, broken glass and much more. This suggests that Debenhams isn’t visually attractive for people, and therefore won’t attract as many pedestrians. Overall the Sheffield pedestrian count could be lower than Meadowhall as a result of the opening of Meadowhall, pulling people away from Sheffield and reducing the popularity of people around Sheffield City Centre, which has therefore enforced our pedestrian count to be low.
This bar chart shows there is a general correlation between the amounts of pedestrians passing, this is shown through the first four results with scorings of: 71, 88, 79 and 76. As shown through both bar charts, Meadowhall’s scoring for the amount of pedestrians is significantly higher than Sheffield City Centre’s. This could have generated conflict with the CBD, as the CBD needs a certain footfall for businesses to continue to be sustainable. The highest score for the amount of pedestrians in Meadowhall that we collected was ‘89’, which was at the bridge from the tram / railway, in contrast to the lowest score which was for Debenhams. This could have been because people were using the interchange that has been built specifically to get into Meadowhall. Debenhams could have a lower score because as also shown in the index of decay, Debenhams suffered from slight structural damage, meaning that the store could have appeared as being less appealing / attractive compared to usual. This could have reduced the amount of people wanting to visit.
Figure 10 and 11 show that more people visit Sheffield City Centre weekly compared to Meadowhall.In Sheffield, approximately 80% visit weekly, in contrast to Meadowhall were only 15 % visit weekly.This could be as a result of more convenience, low order goods being sold here, so people can visit for everyday purposes. Meadowhall mainly sells higher comparison goods rather than necessities, people don’t buy comparison goods as often, as they are more expensive and aren’t a part of essential needs.
Figure 12 and 13 provide us with information on online shopping and how shopping habits are slowly changing. As shown in figure 12, approximately ¼ of people refer to online shopping rather than buying in store. This could be due to the ease of using technology in order to purchase goods. If the development of online shopping increases it could cause a decline in traditional shopping methods, so both Sheffield and Meadowhall may suffer decline.
Figure 14 shows that half of the people that we asked believed that Sheffield CBD would benefit from more / cheaper parking. This is because parking in Sheffield is expensive and Sheffield CBD is busy, therefore more parking could increase the amount of visitors which could generate more income and therefore benefit Sheffield’s economy.
/ ‘I use Meadowhall because it’s under one roof and easy.’/ ‘It is a good place to shop, there are lots of shops.’
/ ‘I am not from Sheffield, but if I was to go shopping, I would use Meadowhall. It’s easy, all under one roof.’
/ ‘Market owners all leave because nobody visits and they don’t make money.’
/ ‘The rent space is cheaper, Meadowhall is far too expensive. Sheffield is also cheaper than other shopping areas, e.g. Burton on Trent. I dislike enclosed areas.’
/ ‘I normally use Meadowhall, I find it easier as it is under the same roof.’
This table provides us with a variety of quotes, all stated by local business within Meadowhall and Sheffield. From these quotes, we can see people’s viewpoints of Meadowhall and the impacts that it has generated on other places. Overall, half of the people that we asked stated that they visited Meadowhall because it is indoors and ‘all under the same roof.’ This implies that people prefer indoor places to shop, as it is much easier. This would provide conflict with other shopping areas such as the CBD, as they are mostly outdoors.
The quote ‘market owners all leave because nobody visits and they don’t make money’ may suggest that Meadowhall has negatively impacted Sheffield CBD, as it has caused for market owners to leave and the overall income to decrease. One individual from a business in Sheffield stated that Meadowhall’s rent is far too expensive, and that Sheffield CBD is cheaper than Meadowhall and many other shopping locations, although this view maybe biased, it also suggests that smaller independent businesses cannot afford Meadowhall’s rent, so this may create conflict.