Section 1
The planetary economic recession has impacted upon little market towns dramatically. With the closing of big retail shops, such as Woolworths, many towns have faced greater degrees of unemployment and a rise in the figure of belongingss left vacant. Leek, Staffordshire, a little market town situated near the boundary line of the Peak District National Park, is of no exclusion. House Prices have been straight affected by the recent recession ; with slower gross revenues and a lessening in house monetary values nationally ( see appendices calculate 1 demoing house monetary values in Leek and besides questionnaire responses to house monetary values – appendices 2 ) , and this thought introduces my first fact-finding subject: How has the recession affected concerns and the value of belongings in Leek?
When questioned about ? of those asked felt that retail had been hit hardest by the recession ( see appendices calculate 3 ) ; as shown in appendices 3 house monetary values reduced in value during September 2006 and November 2009, with the greatest negative alteration being that of the value of flats within leek with a negative growing of -19 % . When questioned about the aesthetic features of Leek, and those of which represented a diminution in retail gross revenues due to the recession, 76 % answered that the addition in the figure of vacant stores was the most common factor associating to the planetary economic market ( a graphical representation of this information is shown in appendices 4 ) . The closing of the Woolworths shop in June 2009 left many confronting a hereafter of occupation insecurity ; yet the vacant store was rapidly bought by The Yorkshire Trading Company. Although many of those questioned felt that the closing of such a big shop in Leek hit smaller concerns difficult, one female questioned who worked for the Tourist Information Centre claimed that she believed the closing of Woolworths really helped smaller niche stores claiming they received an addition in footfall and turnover for those months. It is true that big concatenation shops such as Woolworths frequently draw clients away from little specializer stores, as they are able to bring forth and sell goods at a much more competitory rate, therefore they are more appealing to the consumer. However, on the contrary, it can be said that the downswing of such big shops has had a renewed religion and public support for little specializer stores independently run and owned. However it would look from the primary information I have collected and researching around the topic that the recession is preponderantly being felt in the pockets of little tradesmans ; as many people have less money to pass many little concerns with much larger operating expenses and smaller net income borders ensuing in such concerns fighting to sell stock and hence falling into immense debts to cover costs. With a decrease in direct investing and a downswing in consumer demand many concerns see occupation decrease as the lone manner of strategically remaining afloat and cut downing external costs.
Rural touristry is one of the universes most quickly turning industries, playing a critical portion in the rural economic system. Many of these rural towns and small towns rely entirely upon income from touristry to maintain both the country alive and local concerns afloat In many instances tourism brings with it excess service proviso that exceeds that of the economic viability of the country, due to its little lasting population. On a big graduated table, a huge country in which illustrates rural touristry well is that of the Peak District National Park, itself incorporating many “ king protea small towns ” . See appendices figure 5 for a map of the location of the peak territory. However the extent to which Leek, is a ‘honeypot ‘ town pulling tourers in their 100s is problematic. From carry oning primary research whilst in the town I noted that there were 13 hairstylists and 9 caf & A ; eacute ; ‘s /restaurants. The extended sum of hairstylists within the town Centre suggests that Leek has failed to diversify its retail to a certain extent proposing that services are aimed more towards local occupants instead than tourers. This hypothesis is supported by questionnaire consequences shown in appendices figure 6 demoing more than half of those asked saying that they felt services were preponderantly aimed at local occupants. This within itself suggests that Leek, is mostly unaffected by touristry due to the little sum of specializer stores pulling a niche market.
Through carry oning my research I believe that Leek fails to take advantage of its close propinquity to the boundary lines of the Peak National Park ; there are really few coffeehouse within the town Centre and highly limited options for nightlong stay with merely 6 local bed and breakfasts listed on Leek ‘s official web site. [ 1 ] It would look that local occupants every bit good as visitants feel that the services provided within Leek fail to be aimed at any specific group of people. On the contrary by talking with many local occupants it would look that many feel Leek could make a batch more, services wise to pull touristry and direct investing into the country by supplying more recreational chances. It would look that contrary to what would be expected due to Leeks ‘ close propinquity to the Peak District National Park, Leek itself does non harvest the benefits of such a location and the impact of touristry upon the country both economically and from a retail and development facet appears to be really low.
Section Two.
When operationalizing my questionnaire study I approached my mark population by a agency of chance sampling. I chose to utilize systematic sampling, defined as being ‘often used alternatively of random sampling. It is besides called an Nth name choice technique. After the needed sample size has been calculated, every Nth record is selected from a list of population members. Equally long as the list does non incorporate any concealed order, this trying method is every bit good as the random trying method. Its lone advantage over the random sampling technique is simpleness. Systematic sampling is often used to choose a specified figure of records from a computing machine file. ‘ [ 2 ] I chose to oppugn every 10th individual that walked past me, frequently altering locations at frequent points. I felt that utilizing such an attack would enable me to bring forth consequences stand foring a diverse figure of people ‘s indifferent positions. However, when I got into the field I found utilizing such a systematic sampling technique was non traveling to be effectual ; as many people were unwilling to halt to be asked inquiries which meant I could non efficaciously adhere to my systematic attack. Many people of whom I approached appeared unwilling to take part in my questionnaire therefore myself and my group were forced to rethink our trying technique. The attack was so taken to besides oppugn local store workers of who formed about 30 % of our questionnaire consequences, therefore the overall nature of the population size was mostly that of those populating or working within the town. Within the design of the questionnaire we used a balance of unfastened and closed inquiries. Open inquiries enabled the individual carry oning the questionnaire to inquire the respondent to believe and reflect. From utilizing such inquiries we were able to garner the respondents sentiments and feelings every bit good as enabling us to manus control of the conversation to the respondent.
So as to maintain the questionnaire short as to non take up excessively much of the respondents clip, we did a ratio of 1 unfastened inquiry to 3 closed inquiries. Closed inquiries gave us the facts and were speedy and easy to reply whilst besides enabling us as the inquirer to maintain control of the conversation. The length of the questionnaire was kept to a bound of 2 sides of A4 as to maintain the respondent interested whilst still garnering adequate information to bring forth dependable informations consequences. A pilot trial of the questionnaire was carried out in order to guarantee no anomalousnesss existed and that the inquiries were good worded and easy to understand. At the terminal of the questionnaire personal information was requested such as age and gender in order to be able to place any societal tendencies within the town such as the population of the town which may be linked with service proviso within Leek.
If I were to one time once more conduct the same research I would take to transport out farther primary informations such as a land usage study map and nearest neighbour analysis. A land usage study map would enable to me to place bing land usage in Leek town Centre. This is utile in measuring a nearest neighbour Index ; assisting to place any bunchs of development in specific sectors, i.e. commercial stores. This information can be used to bring forth a land usage map placing this visually. This would assist visualize the sum of store types aimed towards tourers or visitants in the town. I would besides take to oppugn a batch more people, specifically those on twenty-four hours visits within the town as the bulk of those I questioned were local occupants or local concern people therefore my consequences were slightly skewed and biased.
Need TO REFER TO ACADEMIC ARTICLES ABOUT THE METHODS THAT I UTILIZED! !
Mentions.
- hypertext transfer protocol: //www.leektowncentre.com/stayatleek.html last accessed 17.11.09
- hypertext transfer protocol: //www.statpac.com/surveys/sampling.htm. last accessed 16.11.09
