_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses The impact of environmental improvements on town centre regeneration: A case study of Llanelli, South Wales. Hall, Martin John How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Hall, Martin John (2002) The impact of environmental improvements on town centre regeneration: A case study of Llanelli, South Wales.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42826 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. 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Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ The impact of environmental improvements on town centre regeneration: a case study of Llanelli, South Wales Martin John Hall August 2002 Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements for admission to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Wales Swansea 1 ProQuest Number: 10821213 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10821213 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. 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Date................... .............................................. 2 Acknowledgements I should like to thank Dr Rosemary Bromley for her excellent advice and encouragement. I count myself very fortunate that she was chosen to supervise my work. I should also like to thank Dr Colin Thomas for his advice and useful comments. Thanks are also due to Ms A Bird, Ms J Loder and Dr S Perkins for help with the questionnaire survey work. I am also grateful to the Welsh Development Agency for sponsoring this thesis. I dedicate this thesis to my late parents, John and Olive Hall; to my wife, Susan, and my children, Rachel, Rhian, James and Michael; and Nanna and Grancha Arbery. I especially thank my family for releasing me to work in the evenings instead of spending time with them and for the numerous cups of tea. What a great family! I also wish to honour my close friend, the late Vincent Crinnion, who shared my time at Swansea University in the early 1970s, and later made a significant contribution to the teaching of history in Manchester and Warrington during his short life. Above all, I give thanks to God for His grace and favour on my life. 3 Abstract Despite their widespread implementation, there has been little research to investigate the effectiveness of town centre regeneration strategies, or, in particular, the impact of public realm environmental improvements on the commercial health of those centres. Llanelli, a medium sized declining industrial town in South West Wales, whose environment was improved 1992-97, was chosen as a case study because it could provide an insight into the extent to which an improved environment might lead to wider regeneration. A multi­ method research approach was adopted involving large scale residents’ and trader surveys, pedestrian counts, GOAD plan analysis and interviews with key informants. Generalised comparisons of the Llanelli findings were also made with other towns in South Wales. Llanelli town centre was a popular shopping destination for a wide range of socio-economic groups in early 1997 although there was general dissatisfaction with the town centre’s shopping facilities, especially the absence of a foodstore. At the same time, there was widespread acceptance that the environment of the public realm had been improved. The research suggests that the environmental improvements were not accompanied by a dramatic and short-term improvement in the economy of the town centre, nor its competitive status. There was, however, some evidence to suggest that the changes to the public realm brought minor benefits to businesses and helped secure a significant amount of private sector investment. The private investment included the opening of the new St Elli Shopping centre in late 1997 that led to a dramatic improvement in the range of shops in the town centre in subsequent years, including new multiples and an ASDA foodstore. A perceived association between environmental and economic improvement in other South Wales towns was also identified, though the evidence inferring a causal link was not strong. 4 Contents The need for town centre research 8 Town centre regeneration 21 Llanelli’s late twentieth century decline and the planning responses 72 Methodology 93 Residents’ use and views of Llanelli town centre 126 Trader perspectives on Llanelli town centre 175 Comparison of resident and trader perspectives 231 The competitive status of Llanelli town centre 245 Key informants’ perspectives on Llanelli town centre 280 Llanelli retailing change 295 Key informants’ perspectives on comparable South Wales’ towns 306 Conclusions 318 Residents’ survey: location and number of households surveyed by ED in different locations 339 Residents’ survey questionnaire 343 Trader survey questionnaire 356 Changes to town centre most and least beneficial to businesses 366 Socio-economic characteristics of residents shopping in Llanelli and at competing locations 372 Interviews with key informants 1998 380 Major comparison stores in Llanelli 413 Interviews with key informants 2000 415 List of figures Fig 1 Main environmental improvements 1992-1997 88 Fig 2 Major developments 1992-1999 89 Fig 3 Location of EDs for residents’ survey 105 Fig 4 Prime, secondary and peripheral shopping areas 1997 121 Fig 5 Location of main competitor towns 244 Fig 6 Prime, secondary and peripheral shopping areas 1999 298 Fig 7 Towns where key informants were interviewed 304 6 List of plates Plate 1 View of Stepney Street (West) 1990 showing 1960s canopies 79 Plate 2 View of Stepney Street (West) 1997 showing new paving, canopies, lighting and office development 79 Plate 3 View of Stepney Street (East) early 1990s showing old paving and canopies 80 Plate 4 View of Stepney Street (East) 1997 showing new paving, lighting and upgraded entrance to Stepney Precinct 80 Plate 5 Cowell Street 1992 81 Plate 6 Cowell Street 1997 showing new paving and car parking bays 81 Plate 7 Lucania Buildings 1989 82 Plate 8 Lucania Buildings 1997 showing up-graded fa?ade 82 Plate 9 Car parking area north of Stepney Place 1992 85 Plate 10 New bus bays north of Stepney Place 1997 85 Plate 11 New offices viewed from Cowell Street 1997 86 Plate 12 Remediation of former gas works site 87 Plate 13 View of ASDA on former gas works site 1997 87 7 Chapter 1 The need for town centre research Introduction In he late twentieth century there was a growing realisation that town centre decline was becoming widespread in the UK and the USA (for example, Bromley and Thomas 1995; Da/ies and Howard 1988; DOE 1988; DOE 1994; DTEDC 1988; Guy & Lord 1993; HCEC 1994; Montgomery 1990; Robertson 1995; Robertson 1999; Rowley 1993). This led to concerns because of an array of problems that were associated with such decline (DOE 1994; DTEDC 1988; URBED 1999). In the 1990s, in the UK at least, much attention was focussed on how declining town centres could be revitalised through a combination of planning controls curbing out of town developments and a range of positive action to revitalise the town centres themselves (for example, DOE 1994; DETR 1999; HCEC 1994; Scottish Executive 1999; URBED 1999). Most town centre revitalisation programmes included proposals to improve the environment of the public realm, usually as part of a broader range of action (Fuller Peiser 1997). A conventional wisdom began to develop which asserted that in declining town