Metro Centre Gate shed case study

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 560.

Disadvantages

· There will be an increase in congestion as more people travel to shopping centre by car.

· The shopping centres may create noise, air and visual pollution all affecting local residents (negative externality)

· Shopping centres may destroy greenfield sites that have previously been used and enjoyed by local residents

The MetroCentre is a large shopping centre on the A1 (large road) on the edge of Gateshead (near Newcastle). MetroCentre has about 1.3 million people living within about 30 minutes. It was built by the businessman Sir John Hall and opened in 1986. He later sold it to Capital Shopping Centre in 1995 for about $500 million.

The site of the shopping centre was chosen because it was relatively cheap (previously it was marshland), fairly flat, had room for future expansion and was a designated enterprise zone. This meant that planning controls were more relaxedand it was exempt from property tax.

MetroCentre has very good transport links. Most people arrive via car on the A1 and use any of the 10,000 car parking spaces. However, it is also possible to reach the shopping centre via bus and metro.

The shopping centre has over 300 shops and 40 restaurants. Other facilities include a 12 screen cinema, 18 lane bowling alley and 150 room hotel.

Although the MetroCentre has created numerous jobs and provided facilities for local people it has also be blamed for increased traffic, pollution and the decline of Newcastle CBD.

Urbanization: The increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas. Although this can be caused by natural increase (higher birth rates in urban areas than rural areas), it is more likely to happen because of rural-urban migration.

Urban growth or Sprawl: A growth in the size of the urban area. This normally happens because of building in the rural-urban fringe, although it may also include things like land reclamation.

· Problems caused by rapid Urbanization

· Congestion (an increase in the amount of traffic leading to traffic jams)

· Destruction of greenfield sites

· Pollutions (air, water, noise, visual)

· Electricity blackouts

· Water shortages

· Unemployment

· Homelessness

· Growth of informal settlements

· Crime

Often one urban problem can lead to many other urban problems. This is often called the spiral of declineor also the negative multiplier effect. For example deindustrialisation (closure of factories and movement overseas) led to unemployment. Once you have unemployment local residents have less money. They do not spend money in local shops or on local facilities. They also invest less in their houses. Local businesses start to close or move to new locations (disinvestment). The local government starts to collect less money in tax while having to pay more unemployment benefit.

As local shops and facilities either close or move elsewhere unemployment rises still further. Some people will start to move causing depopulation. This out migration leaves behind abandoned businesses and houses which are often vandalised and become derelict.

Remaining residents take less care of their houses and the local government has less money to spend on roads, schools and hospitals. Education levels fall and so does residents health leading to more sickness and days missed from work.

This decline can continue on indefinitely until some intervention, usually by the government trying to regenerate and improve and area.