G3B Coursework

Question 1

Stage One - Planning Stages of the Investigation

What were the three subquestions (and main question?)

Answer 1

To what extent is Chelmsford High Street in Decline?

1. Is the environment in decline within the central shopping area?
2. Is there a zone of discard within the central shopping area?
3. To what extent does Chelmsford provide a unique retail experience

Question 2

Stage One

Why was Chelmsford selected?

Answer 2

• Accessibility
• Antecedent knowledge
• Access to historical data from Chelmsford County Hall

Question 3

Stage One

What did the pilot survey conclude?

Answer 3

• EQS points reduced from every 500m systematically to every 100m for greater precision
• Instead of selection of points based on random grid selection, a systematic linear path radiating from the PLVI out was used - theory - Bid-rent - should expect more decline where less investment is
• Removal of leading questions
• Qualitative data reduced to 20% of the questionnaire - favour quantative in order to make graphical presentation easier - objective data
• Scales of 1-5 to offer a 3 as a neither agree nor disagree point
• Quota sampling (50 people) for convenience, stratified by demographic too difficult to guess + rude to ask
• Chewing gum selected based on a 100x100 quadrat rather than paving slabs which were variable in size

Question 4

Stage One

What else did you do?

Answer 4

• Risk assessment likelihood vs severity
• Aquired equipment - tape measure, quadrat, smartphone (Apps: Decibel10th, iOS compass, Google Maps, camera, voice recorder, google drive and photosynth)
• Data collection forms coordinated online through google drive
• Use of Yahoo weather app to determine the weather within 7 days. 40% chance of precipitation - not too bad.

Question 5

Stage Two

Justification of zones

Answer 5

• Chewing gum - transect from PLVI outwards would provide clear line to measure fluctuation which could be tied to bid rent
• Bin Mapping - comprehensive mapping given the low numbers and to allow accurate judgements
• EQS - systematic transect offering distance decay
• NEF clone town survey uses nation wide comparison
• questionnaire - rich source of quantative and qualitative data with insight and perceptions otherwise unobtainable

Question 6

Stage 2

Geographical Context

Answer 6

• bid rent theory - explains the rise of blue chip stores
• Burgess and Hoyt - explains trends further
• Geography Review Vol 25 No 3 2012 - handling census data
• Geography review vol 25 no.3 2012 - regen of liverpool
• Channel 4 Special Report on High Streets - 25,000 closures in 2000-2012
• Peter Scott, geography of retailing - falsified Christaller’s model

Question 7

Stage 2

transect detail

Answer 7

Linear, from PLVI

• Follows 1km
• Compared to a 1km transect in Basildon, used as a control town

Question 8

Stage 2

Describe data collection

Answer 8

• Bin Mapping - isoline map - at points where bins were located, a geopin was placed, lat and long.

Chewing gum - systematic transect, quadrat

• Graffiti - photos
• EQS - sketch maps
• Questionnaires - quota,
• Secondary - library
• Tertiary - wikipedia
• Gridlock due to bus crash meant surveying delayed

Question 9

Stage 3

Questionnaire - composite Bar charts

Answer 9

Des: Various forms of qualitative responses (such as rate 1-5 the vibrancy of Chelmsford) presented on one graph. Dominant bars illustrate dominant trends

Pros: Dominant trends are easily identifiable without compromising the accuracy of the data. Mass presentation

Cons: Can become crowded, especially on smaller maps. Geographical context lost

Question 10

Stage 3

Catchment Sphere of Influence w/ Proportional icons

Answer 10

Des: An overlay of translucent spheres, indicating 5 mi. delineations, with prop. Silhouettes to indicate catchment

Pros: Visually identifiable, without need for data. Identifies geographical trends through overlay

Cons: lacks numerical analysis, symbol size easy to misinterpret

Question 11

Stage 3

Transport Pictogram

Answer 11

Des: Different transport modes representing vehicle frequency plotted against one another

Pros: Simplified, maintains numerical data with visual qualities

Cons: Easily confused – the length of one bus requires 5 equivalent walker silhouettes to reach same length. Instead of measuring x-axis value, may be read as more walkers to buses.

Question 12

stage 3

Questionnaire Speech Bubbles

Answer 12

Des: Qualitative comments from questionnaire displayed in speech bubbles

Pros: Provides means of inputting qualitative data otherwise lost Cons: Speech bubbles alone are dislocated from age, gender, ethnicity and geographical location of the person quoted from. May lack wider context available at the time of study.

Question 13

Stage 3

NEF Spectrum Bar

Answer 13

Des: A spectrum ranging from 0 (blue) to 50 (red) upon which various towns are placed alongside Chelmsford to give an illustrative account of its position in relation to national patterns

Pros: the vast amount of data from the NEF makes the study far more accurate, as it gives a sense of Chelmsford on a national, sscale.

Cons: The NEF exhibits a bias towards the exemplification of clone towns - not comprehensive. Comparing Chelmsford to other locations doesn’t account for different developmental history

Question 14

Stage 3

Chewing Gum Distance Decay

Answer 14

Des: The linear transect of data is translated into a line graph detailing the rate of change over distance, in expected negative corr.

Pros: Supports the theory of distance decay, bid-rent and PLVI

Cons: Lack of cartographic detail fails to account for some anomalies

Question 15

Stage 3

EQS bi-polar

Answer 15

Des: Using a +2 to -2 y-scale, EQS detail was plotted with different coloured lines. Lines consistently above the x axis were more successful than lower ones

Pros: Effectively captured 6 different forms of data on one table. Data not compromised for graphics

Cons: Sheer volume of data made analysis difficult. Fluctuations made determining highest scorer difficult

Question 16

Stage 3

Land use mapping w/ isoline overlay

Answer 16

Des: a blank OS map was shaded according to colour code, with numbers additionally indicating quality. An isoline identifying bin density was applied for trends

Pros: Isolines illustrated clusters, colours visual

Cons: density of information hard to interpret.

Question 17

Findings

Questionnaire composite bar charts

Answer 17

When asked about how good the environmental quality of basildon is? 40% rated the environment as good (4) along with 27% rating it as very good(5). and only 7% rating it below average. Chelsmford seems to have aquired better results with 33% rating it as very good (5) supported by a high 37% who rated it as good(4).

Chelmsford had an average rating of 3.9/5 in comparison to Basildon which had 3.7.

Question 18

Findings

Questionnaire Speech Bubbles

Answer 18

What did people like about Chelmsford-

It provides brilliant pedestrianized links through much of the town centre. For a wheelchair user, they particularly liked Tindall.

The Square of the high street and the area from stone bridge to baddow road as these area contain much of what little historic architecture remains.

What Disliked

Slippery paving, high chelmer ugly, slippery paving, street clutter, paving slabs looking shabby now.

Need more recycling bins that have a closed lid as rubbish can fly out.

Question 19

Findings

Clown Town Survey

Answer 19

13.9. This indicates that Chelmsford is a clone town. In comparison to Basildon, Chelmsford is more unique as Basildon received a score of 8.9. On the spectrum provided by NEF, Chelmsford is placed far within the clone town Bracket with the next clone town at a score of 23.9 and the closest border town score by Oxford with a score of 28.9.

Question 20

Findings

Chewing Gum Distance Decay

Answer 20

The graph shows that within Chelmsford, there is a negative correlation and a very high average of 13 pieces of chewing gum in each transect. Basildon on the other hand has a positive correlation and an average gum count of 14. Anomalies to mention: At 400m away from PLVI in both Basildon and Chelmsford, there appears to be anomalies whereby Basildon’s score disrupts the trend by receiving a score of 21 which is 7 pieces higher than the previous count and Chelmsford drops low to a score of 14 then 7 which disrupts the steady descending trend.

Question 21

Findings

EQS Bi-Polar

Answer 21

Chelmsford’s-The further we moved away from the PLVI, the reduction in Environmental quality. The average results go from an average of approx +0.5 to -0.3. Must acknowledge the generally low rating due to reduced green space and more litter which received a score of -1 and 0 at all locations

Question 22

Findings

Land use mapping

Answer 22

We found that the occupation of buildings along the high street were more specifically chain stores and high order goods such as WHSmiths, Vodaphone and cahin restaurants such as Mcdonalds.However, there did appear to be an area of unoccupied areas which were approximately 300m away from the PLVI.

Question 23

Conclusion

“Is the environment in decline within the central shopping centre?”

Answer 23

• The EQS BI-Polar, Chewing Gum Count and Questionnaire composite Bar graph suggests that Chelmsford’s environment is not in decline.
• Although Chelmsford has a high gum count, most specifically near the PLVI, the Gum count of chelmsford 6/10 of our counts showed a count of less than 14 pieces whereas Basildon, our model for rejuvenated area showed 7/10 times the count was above 14 pieces.

When looking at the Bi-Polar graph, the decline in environmental quality the further away from the PLVI does not indicate environmental decline as our comparison with Basildon’s score and our previous knowledge of Bid Rent theory, Core frame model - allows us to accept that environmental decline is inevitable and that we only gave a score of -2.0 in 4 questions, which does not indicate extreme environmental decline that might concern us.

Question 24

Conclusion

To what extent does Chelmsford provide a unique retail experience?

Answer 24

• Evidence proves that Chelmsford is a clone town and therefore might not be particularly unique in terms of providing a retail experience.(It shared a similar independent/chain shop ratio.
• 40% of people said that they preferred to shop at other occasions most specifically lakeside and stratford. However, looking at the Essex street diversions in 2012 shows increasing efforts by the local councilto keep attracting people to Chelmsford which proved successful as thousands of people turned up for the event.

Question 25

Conclusion

“Is there a zone of discard within the central shopping area?”

Answer 25

-No obvious zone of discard. Only evidence was acknowledging the cluster of independent shops south of the PLVI and perhaps the unoccupied areas on the high-street. However, when looking at the Bid Rent theory we must accept that the decreasing prominence of cahin stores and increasing rise of independent stores is natural in the bid rent theory.

Question 26

Evaluation

Chewing Gum

Answer 26

+ Quantitative measure of street cleanliness change along the length of the high street (can be mapped to show a transect of street condition.)

+ Data can be mapped to locations, allowing spatial pattern analysis.

X Difficult to establish quadrat on busy street

X Unhygienic

X May look suspicious to passers-by.

EQS-

+ Can be linked to other methods (opportunity to construct proportional located bi-polar charts)

+ Surveys can be undertaken by groups (data collected more quickly and over a more comprehensive area)

+Lends itself to visually striking data presentation

+Can be plotted on a transect

X Does not take into account all component areas

X Surveys are highly subjective

Question 27

Evaluation

NEF Clone Town Survey

Answer 27

+ Can be used to assess spatial distribution of independent and chain shops - builds land value transect

+ Simple, standardised technique, comparable to other towns/cities

+Formatted by nationally recognised/renowned think tank

X Requires consecutive surveys to produce truly representative data

X Easily skewed by minor variations i.e. which sides of the street are surveyed

X Misrepresentative of “compartmentalised” shopping districts

Questionnaire Data -

+Large amounts of information can be collected from a large number of people in a short period of time

+ No need to extensive data interpretation or presentation

+ Every chosen group is included in the sample

+ Can be put to a school population to produce a larger sample

X Sample is highly unlikely to be representative

X Process is random, can produce a bias

X Limited to people willing to answer

Question 28

Evaluation

Answer 28

Overall - X Flawed due to the large number of restrictions faced when attempting data collection; the limited availability of primary data on a very narrow transect despite the obvious integration of the investigation with models. This occurred due to time constraints and a lack of practical solutions to the limitations faced when operating in such a short time.

X Would have been more effective (although more time-consuming) to collect a larger volume of data and then interpret what was needed as to give a better idea as to trends and patterns.

X Although difficult, it would’ve been useful to interview a council representative to compare professional viewpoints with our conclusions.

+ Confinements forced us to be more selective of appropriate data and clinical in our approach to collection, thus improving the quality of data.

+ Extensive planning of the investigation meant we were able to systematically collect data without hindrance.

+ The use of technology (photographs, data collection, transect measurement etc.) made the data accessible to all when and wherever it needed to be used - the utilisation of the google drive proved to be unquestionable.

Question 29

Evaluation

Further scope for investigation

Answer 29

Further expansion of the investigation -

Chosen study area could be expanded in order to include data from outside the PLVI’s transactional line in a more circumferential pattern - would create a much more accurate image as to the real condition of Chelmsford’s central hub. Comparison with another area - CBD such as that of Birmingham, and somewhere where the CBD is not necessarily as definitive as that of Chelmsford, such as London (although it is typically defined as Canary Wharf this only takes into account the financial sector). Ultimately this would have allowed me to make a comparison between 3 differing areas. The downside to this is that most of the data would probably not come from one source making it less reliable as there would be inconsistencies between different investigators, although it would be more than sufficient for a small scale investigation.