Classnotes: 2nd March: Access to Services Varies

Key questions: What is ‘access’ and ‘services’?How does access vary across an urban area?

What are services?
They can include
- leisure services e.g. swimming pool, parkland (recreation area) and cinemas
- health services e.g. dentist, doctor, hospital, emergency services
- eduction - types of school, and further education establishment
- shops which include the various corner shops, shopping malls in city centres, shopping parades in suburban areas etc

Shopping is an example of a service
Shoppping can be used as a good example becuase people need shops wherever they are, and use them quite often. Provision (the amount available) of shops is also very easy to observe in geography fieldwork. We categorise according the goods they sell
- High to low order products lead to high or low order shopping areas within an urban area
- High order = usually one-off purchases, expensive, only need one e.g. car, mobile phone, TV, VCR or DVD player
- Low order = buy often, cheap, need lots, e.g. milk bread etc.
It is important to see these on a sliding scale - products may not actually be a definite high or low order, but in between. For example, biros. You might by a new pen once a month. It is cheap, but you probably only buy one at a time. Does this make it high or low order? You decide!

Shopping hierarchies
A hierarchy is where things are put into an order. In Geography we often use a triangle to show this.



At the top are the high order CBD shops - expensive, not used very often (compared to the low order areas) and not used to buy many bulky purchases. At the bottom of the triangle are the low order shops. There are a lot more of these than CBD shops.

Recent changes to shopping patterns- Internet shopping is changing this pattern but the effects aren’t being seen yet
- In the 1980s and 1990s lots of out-of-town shopping centres were built e.g. Lakeside, Bluewater, Meadowhall and the Trafford Centre
- BUT these took business away from city centres which became run down…
- …so now people are looking to regenerate city centres with better planning of supermarkets etc.

Access
Access means
- Is the service available? (e.g. can you even get broadband in your area?)
- Can you reach it? (can you get there e.g. by car, or not? Can you get your wheelchair up the stairs so you can access the hair salon or not?)
- Are you allowed to use it? (is there an age restriction, or other discrimination e.g. racial, religious, or sexual?)

Factors affecting access to services- cost
- location
- private transport
- public transport
- fear of crime
- disability/ability
...and many more! You could do a 'so what' for each of these e.g. expensive ... so... only the wealthy can afford it

An example of access to services changing: Merry Hill shopping centre in the West Midlands
Where is Merry Hill? Disused steelworks near Dudley in the West Midlands. One of many on the edges of towns across the country.
What was the area like before? Sprawling large area, with M&S etc. Shops closing down and in decline.
What is it like now? 4000 jobs created (2800 more than when steelworks was there). One of the four biggest shopping centres in the UK
Are there any problems? Local shops have closed down as customers go to Merry Hill. Jobs have been lost in these areas. Out of town centres have about 30% of all retail trade.
What groups are there and what do they think about it?
- Disabled and elderly attracted as there are no steps
- Government policy is now against this – but planning permission is still being given for some.
- Wealthy with cars – enjoy shopping there because they can afford it
- Local people against it due to closing down local shops.
- Workforce benefits from getting jobs
- Local business owners lost jobs

Questions... see Mr Burdett in class!