Identifying town centres public participation and town centre indicator combinations

IDENTIFYING TOWN CENTRES: PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND TOWN CENTRE INDICATOR COMBINATIONS By Thoa Thi Kim Le M.Tech Remote Sensing and GIS Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2007 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Identifying the spatial structure of town centre activities and its boundaries, coupled with the modes of representation town centre activities have been considered as important issues of British town centre planning over the past decade (DoE, 1993, 1996a; Falk, 1998; Thurstain-Goodwin and Batty, 1998; Tomalin, 1998; Ravenscroft et al., 2000; Batty et al., 2004) This information is urgently required by the governmental authorities to assess the local town centre economics and to assist with supporting unsustainable or failing centres (DoE, 1993, 1996a; DETR, 1999; ODPM, 2005) The main trend for most towns and cities has been counter-urbanization, which is, the development and spread of ‘traditional centres’ (Hall, 1974; Champion, 1989; Comedia, 1991; Lever, 1993; URBED, 1994; Boyle et al., 1998; Champion, 2001) As a result, the town centre boundaries and its spatial structure have changed and need to be updated for understanding and evaluating the complexity of town centre economic activities Intensive focus will be given to one of the pressing issues of urban study that of identifying and representing the spatial structure of town centre activities The target is to combine the use of public participation approaches and a variety of spatial indicators that reflect multiple aspects of town centre activities for identifying and representing the spatial extent of town centres To enable the identification and representation of this complex spatial structure, it is important to acknowledge the related changes and understand the various shifts and trends in the ‘life and soul’ of a modern urban system 1.2 Change in town centre activities During the last thirty years, the dominant commercial status of British town centres has been increasingly challenged by the competitive impact of decentralisation of retail, office and leisure facilities and the relocation of employment (Schiller, 1986; Bromley and Thomas, 1993; Schiller, 1994; Herbert and Thomas, 1997; Evans, 1997; Herbert, 2000) Also important are the significant degrees of spatial fragmentation of functions and the loss of a substantial residential population from the town centre (Schiller, 1986, 1987; Sasaki, 1990; Worpole, 1992; Evans, 1997; Oc and Tiesdell, 1997a; Breheny, 1999a) Both people and capital have abandoned parts of British town centres, creating a landscape of dereliction and decay, crime and fear (Trench et al., 1992; Worpole, 1992; Howard and Davies, 1993; Beck and Willis, 1994; Jones et al., 1994; Nelson, 1996; Fyfe, 1997; Oc and Tiesdell, 1997b, 1998; Ravenscroft et al., 2000) At the same time, off-centre locations, accessible by car, have become more convenient and attractive to townspeople and shoppers for the location of new shopping centres, entertainment and housing (Schiller, 1986, 1994; Garreau, 1991; Fernie, 1995; Breheny, 1999b; Thomas and Bromley, 2000) As trade and investment are diverted to these new locations, other functions traditionally associated with the town centre such as social and cultural activities are also affected Many town centres have lost their traditional roles and functions (URBED, 1994; DETR, 1999; CASA, 2000, 2002) As a result, town centres present fewer attractions for shoppers, employers and residents (Hall, 1974; URBED, 1994; Herbert and Thomas, 1997; Champion, 2001; Atkinson and Roden, 2002) The contemporary town centres are usually associated with “dilapidation, poor housing and economic and social deprivation” (Johnston, 2000a, pp 396) With the growing problems affecting town centres in Britain, the restructuring of urban policy undertaken since 1997 by the New Labour government has created a wide array of new policy initiatives (Johnston and Whitehead, 2003) A plethora of urban policies has been introduced by Central Government The Urban Task Force (1999), the Urban White Paper (DETR, 2000a) and the Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG6) (DoE, 1993, 1996a) aimed to achieve an ‘urban renaissance’ within British cities The urban renaissance aspires to “make our towns and cities places where people want to live and work” (DTLR, 2002, pp 1) A recent culmination was the publication of the Urban White Paper ‘Our Towns and Cities: The future – Delivering an Urban Renaissance’ (DETR, 2000a) Many recent policy documents have encouraged the compact, functionally mixed and ‘sustainable’ city (CEC, 1990; DoE, 1994, 1996b; DETR, 2000b, 2001); a vital and viable town centre (Comedia, 1991; Schiller, 1994; URBED, 1994; DETR, 2000a; DTLR, 2002); and the town centre as a place for people to live and work (DoE, 1995, 1996a; The Urban Task Force, 1999; DETR, 2000a; DTLR, 2002) In parallel with these policies, town centre management has emerged as a key research theme within contemporary human geography to protect the vitality and viability of town and city centres in the UK (DoE, 1993, 1996a) This theme embraces a multiplicity of interrelated social and economic research issues, which have recently gained increasing attention (Trench and Oc, 1990, 1995; Healey et al., 1992; Healey and Baker, 1995; Evans, 1997; Roberts and Sykes, 2000; Johnston and Whitehead, 2003; Hollins, 2004) As a consequence of these changes, the character of many cities and towns has altered from mono-centre to multi-centre areas of predominantly office and retail use (Evans, 1997; DETR, 1998; Flannigan, 1999; Ravenscroft, 2000; Hall, 2001) In addition, many of those who previously rejected the town centre in favour of the suburbs are now returning to live in town centres, which create a new landscape of opportunity and seeming prosperity alongside popular movements to reclaim spaces of decay (Smith and Williams, 1986; Smith, 1996; Coupland, 1997; Boyle et al., 1998) One sign of this pronounced shift is the move from a place having a day economy to an evening/night economy since the daytime town centre economy has lost some of its role due to out-of-town retail development (Lovatt and O’Connor, 1995; Heath, 1997; Bromley, et al., 2000; Hardill et al., 2003; Hobbs et al., 2003; Robert, 2006) On the other hand, the town centre is also experiencing the emergence of negative perceptions of safety and security issues during the day time and night time (DoE, 1992; BCSC, 1996; Thomas and Bromley, 1996, 2000; Fyfe, 1997; Oc and Tiesdell, 1997b) This apparent decline has generated both a symbolic concern with the loss of specifically urban ways of life and a celebration of the new opportunities offered by out-of-town complexes (Lovatt and O’Connor, 1995; Herbert; 2000; Orton, 2000) In order to survive and evolve in such circumstance, the town centre has acted as a multiplex of centres, of employment, living and leisure with diversity of small scale-business and facility combinations (DETR, 1999) Whether the cities have declined or evolved in relation to such shifts, the roles and functions traditionally associated with town centres have changed These changes have restructured the city in terms of socio-economic activities and physical spatial structure As a result, the definition of town centres and town centre functions in relation to a multitude of aspects of town centre activities need to be reassessed and updated to cope with the current status of town centre economics The present renaissance of town centre economic activities based on policy strategies is a less well defined boundary since the identification of the town centre is based on the traditional views of town centre edges and uses 1.3 Need for representing and modelling town centre activities With diversified shifts and changes in the nature and structure of town centre activities, it is crucial to have a well-concerted plan for town centre management: to manage economic and social activities (URBED, 1994; Johnston and Whitehead, 2003), to improve the quality of urban life (URBED, 1994; DETR, 1999; Johnston, 2000b), to preserve the environment (URBED, 1994; DETR, 1999; Thomas and Bromley, 2000) and to combat safety concerns (Beck and Willis, 1994; Fyfe, 1996; Jones et al., 1997) In addition, in order to understand how town centres are evolving or declining, it is essential to have access to up-todate information on the spatial structures of towns and cities and the impact of such patterns on the urban environment (DETR, 1998; Cox et al., 2000; CASA, 2000, 2002; Batty et al., 2004) Indeed, representing and modelling town centre activities provides a ‘picture’ of where each type of pattern is changing It helps to identify important economic, social and cultural activities, and supports the planning and decision making purposes Many local authorities have been collecting data about such spatial structures for the purpose of evaluating and understanding their town centre economics This information is recorded using Town Centre Indicators (TCIs) However, there has been little attempt to integrate extensive research on visualising different combinations of these indicators to represent and model town centre activities The statistical analysis of town centre economic activities based on such measures (Lockwood, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003; Ravenscroft, 2000; Burton, 2001) would give a good insight for understanding the complexity of town centre activities, and hence assist in planning and policy making purposes However, spatial planning without visualising spatial information would not provide a full picture of where things are happening Furthermore, the traditional role and functions of the town centre has changed These changes have altered the town centre boundaries Therefore, understanding and evaluating town centre economic activities by collecting spatial information based on traditional views of town centre boundaries is perhaps outdated In reality, these boundaries are usually more blurred than is portrayed by administrative delimitation, especially when town use involves complex changing social and economic trends like population shifts, personnel mobility, self-service economy, retail concentration or retail decentralisation There is a need to develop improved measures of town centre functions by representing and modelling the change in spatial structure within town centre activities (DETR, 1998; Thurstain-Goodwin and Batty, 1998; CASA, 2000; 2002; Batty, et al., 2004) 1.4 Need for public participation in defining a town centre To enable the representation and modelling of town centre activities, there is a need to identify town centres The town centre has lost its ‘bohemian’ character and altered from a single function to a multitude of mixed functions (URBED, 1994; DETR, 1999; Ravenscroft, 2000; Hall, 2001; Hardill, 2003) These mixed functions have altered the spatial structure of town centre activities Consequently, the traditional view of the town centre as a place to shop, to eat and drink, and to engage in other related activities (Smith and Williams, 1986; Smith, 1996; Coupland, 1997; Boyle et al., 1998) has changed This view has been altered in parallel with changes in the socio-economic and physical structures of town centre activities on a day to day basis There is no doubt about the need to update our methods for identifying a town centre However, how to update our methods to accommodate such changes is a matter of concern Everyone has knowledge of town centres in his or her mind when asked about town centre boundaries However, town centre definition varies depending on which spatial aspects of town centre activities are considered to be important It is unlikely that any one person will have identical opinions since each individual will interpret and construct his/her personal view of how spatial structures within town centre activities should look, feel, operate and are experienced As a result, everyone has his/her own normative view of what spatial structures should be presented within town centre activities Indeed, it would be surprising if these were all identical In reality, these views represent a geographically vague area in which we often constrain our activities Due to such complex views in defining town centres, there may be limited consensus on what does or does not constitute an appropriate set of TCIs to measure the different aspects of town centre activities For planning and decision-making purposes, public participation has been considered as a good source of updating these changes (DETR, 1999; ODPM, 2004a) Therefore, public participation is addressed in this research as a means to gain an ‘average’ view of identifying the location and structure of town centre activities 1.5 The scope of research and structure of thesis The scope of this research will examine and develop an appropriate method that could be used to satisfy with two main aims: (1) representing and modelling the spatial extent of town centre activities; (2) identifying the important spatial structures that make a significant contribution to identifying town centre activities The combined use of public participation approaches and a variety of spatial indicators that reflect multiple aspects of town centre activities is used to fulfil these aims The research study is reported in nine further chapters (Figure 1.1) A brief summary of the remaining chapters is provided below  Chapter provides an overview of the literature on defining town centres in terms of different perspectives Town centre indicators that are used to represent and model the spatial extent of town centre activities are examined In the light of this review, the need for combined use of TCIs and public participation approaches in identifying, representing and modelling town centre activities is presented  Chapter documents the research aims, objectives and study area It also identifies the methods used and developed to fulfil the research aims  Chapter presents the use of a discrete boundary method applied in a paper-based survey to gauge public perception in defining the town centre Respondents are requested to draw lines or polygons to define their town centres The result of multiple responses are collected and combined to produce an ‘average’ view of the town centre definition in terms of public composite town centre map and the significant contribution of each TCI that reflect multiple aspects of town centre activities  Chapter provides an alternative method of using continuous boundary to gauge public opinion in defining the town centre This method is called a spray-can tool applied in a web-based survey Respondents are requested to use a spray-can tool to shade their town centres instead of drawing lines or polygons Multiple responses are collected, and thereafter combined to produce a public composite town centre map and an ‘average’ weight of each TCI  Chapter provides the result of collecting and representing a set of TCI variables that describe multiple aspects of town centre area activities The section is devoted to the refinement of data collection and combination to produce a complete spatial dataset for each TCI A field-based survey to collect unavailable data is also presented in this chapter Finally, the transformation of a set of TCI variables into commensurate density surface maps for subsequent modelling operations is presented  Chapter presents the application of GIS-based Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method to model the town centre area activities The town centre model produced from this method is the result of the combined use of TCIs and public participation viewpoints in determining the weight assigned to each TCI variable to represent and model the town centre extent  Chapter presents the application of M5 Model Tree (M5MT) method to represent and model the town centre extent Instead of using public viewpoints in conjunction with a set of TCIs as addressed in GIS-based WLC method, the public composite town centre map and a set of TCIs is utilised in this method as the predicted output and input data in the learning stage This chapter details how the spatial structure of a set of TCI combinations within the town centre is detected using this method  Chapter discusses the results presented in Chapters to in the context of examining and developing an appropriate method for representing and modelling the spatial extent of town centre activities, and to identify the important aspects that contribute significantly in identifying town centre activities  Chapter 10 begins with the overall conclusions drawn from the study The major findings of the research are summarised and some recommendations for future work are also given in this final chapter In addition to the chapters outlined above, the following additional sections are included:  References  List of published papers  Appendix A provides the descriptions of a set of TCIs suggested by ODPM (2005) and ATCM (1999) for identifying town centre area activities  Appendix B presents the preparation of the questionnaire survey for the public mapping of the town centre area  Appendix C provides the questionnaire and the layout of the web-based survey that was used to collect public perception in defining the town centre area activities using a spray-can tool method  Appendix D presents the different types of public sub-composite town centre output maps  Appendix E presents the result of pedestrian field-based collection on July 2007  Appendix F provides the output of training examples used in the learning stage of the M5MT Oc, T and Tiesdell, S (1998) City centre management and safer city centres: approaches in Coventry and Nottingham Cities, 15 (2), pp 85-103 ODPM – Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2002) Best value performance indicators 2002/2003 London, ODPM ODPM - Office of the Deputy 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