Retail parks, leisure facilities and open space

Overview

Retail park, open space and leisure provision are found in a city and how urban open space contributes to social sustainability.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a retail park, and why did such developments grow?

   Model answer

   A retail park is a group of large-format stores, typically selling bulky comparison goods such as furniture, electricals, DIY materials and clothing, sharing a large area of free surface car parking, usually located on the edge of a town or beside a ring road or motorway junction. They grew because rising car ownership made peripheral sites accessible; because land there was cheap and available in large flat plots, allowing single-storey stores with wide aisles, adjoining warehousing and easy servicing by lorry; because town centres were congested, short of parking and expensive in rent and rates; because population and purchasing power had suburbanised; because shoppers valued one-stop shopping with a car boot at the door and long opening hours; and because for a period planning permission for such sites was comparatively easy to obtain.

2. 2

   What are the environmental consequences of retail park development?

   Model answer

   They consume large areas of land, frequently greenfield, and a high proportion of the site is sealed under buildings and parking, which increases runoff, pollutes it with oil and rubber, and creates a local heat island. Because they are designed around the car, almost all customer trips and all deliveries arrive by road, so vehicle kilometres, emissions and congestion on the approach roads increase, and the low densities make bus services hard to justify. Large single-storey sheds with big roof areas and heavily lit interiors use substantial energy, although modern units may offset this with rooflights, insulation and roof-mounted solar panels. Where they draw trade from the town centre, existing shops become vacant, so serviceable buildings and infrastructure fall out of use while new ones are built on the edge, which is a waste of the resources already invested. There is also visual intrusion, signage and light spill at the urban fringe.

3. 3

   What are the social consequences of retail park development?

   Model answer

   For car-owning households they offer convenience, choice, easy parking, longer opening hours and often lower prices, and the development creates jobs, although a high proportion are part-time and low-paid. For households without a car, and for many older and disabled people, the effect can be the opposite: if shops close in the town centre and the replacement is only reachable by car, choice and access are reduced, and the journey becomes longer and dearer. Independent and specialist shops find it hard to compete with the scale and buying power of large-format retailers, so the range of shops narrows. Town centres are not only places to shop but places where people of all ages and backgrounds meet by chance, and their decline erodes that shared public space and can leave streets with vacancies, charity shops and a reputation for feeling unsafe after dark. On the other side, retail parks built on derelict industrial land can bring investment and employment to areas that had lost both.

4. 4

   Explain how retail parks compete with town centres.

   Model answer

   They capture the comparison and bulky-goods spending that traditionally supported town-centre department stores and specialist shops, by offering free parking, larger stores and easier access. As town-centre turnover falls, retailers close or reduce their space; vacancy rises, so rents and the confidence to invest fall; the range and quality of the offer declines, which reduces the reason to visit; and footfall falls further. That is a downward spiral, and it has been intensified by online shopping, which has taken a further large share of the same comparison spending. The centre may then shift towards charity shops, takeaways, betting shops and vacant units, which reinforces perceptions of decline, while cafes, services, leisure and events become a larger part of what remains.

5. 5

   Evaluate the measures planning authorities use to protect town centres.

   Model answer

   The principal tool is the sequential approach, which requires proposals for retail development to demonstrate that no suitable site is available in the town centre, then on the edge of it, before an out-of-centre site can be considered, supported by an impact assessment of the effect on the centre's vitality and viability. Alongside it authorities use pedestrianisation and public realm improvement, cheaper or time-limited central parking, markets, festivals and events to create reasons to visit, business improvement districts funded by local firms, rate relief for small shops, permission to convert redundant upper floors and vacant units to housing and leisure, and the deliberate introduction of housing, offices, health centres and colleges into the centre to generate footfall through the day. Their effectiveness is partial: policy can prevent further dispersal but cannot reverse decisions already made, and it cannot counter online retailing, so successful centres are generally those that have changed their function towards services, leisure, culture and living rather than those that have tried to win back comparison shopping.

6. 6

   How can retail development be made more sustainable?

   Model answer

   By location first: applying the sequential approach so that new floorspace goes to centres and edge-of-centre sites that people can reach on foot, by bicycle and by bus, and using previously developed land rather than greenfield. Then by access: a real bus service into the site rather than a stop on the far side of a dual carriageway, safe pedestrian and cycle routes across the car park, secure cycle parking, and parking that is limited in quantity and, where appropriate, charged for. Then by design and operation: permeable paving, swales and rain gardens instead of continuous tarmac, rooftop solar and rainwater harvesting, high insulation and efficient lighting, tree planting for shade and appearance, electric vehicle charging, consolidated deliveries and click and collect points that replace several separate van trips, and building at more than one storey with housing or offices above the retail so the land works harder.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.