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Abstract
People in deprived neighbourhoods live shorter and unhealthier lives than those in less deprived ones. Socio-economic status alone does not explain the difference and there is increasing evidence that the physical environments in which people spend their lives are implicated in health disparities. Traditional shopping streets in the UK have changed out of all recognition in the last few decades. This paper explores the evidence around exposure to unhealthy shops and services and how this may impact on communities. The work underlines the need to consider these potentially unhealthy areas more holistically. The research concludes that while restrictive planning policies to prevent proliferation of some of these uses may have some currency, more proactively urban designers need to fundamentally rethink these places and what they offer to the people they serve.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. For example Woolworths, Habitat, Jessops etc.
2. The changes only came into effect on 1 April 2014 so have yet to be assessed.
3. From a tax on stakes and winnings of customers to tax on the gross profits of bookmakers.
4. Overall, public houses have declined from 69,000 in 1980 to 51,178 in 2010 (that is nearly a quarter) although this includes rural as well as urban locations.
5. These are the lowest level of administrative districts in England which have elected representatives who serve on the governing body of the local authority; in this case Newcastle City Council.
6. Tesco Metro supermarkets are one of a number of similar initiatives by major supermarket chains in the UK to open small to medium-sized stores aiming to serve local communities, partly developed in response to criticism of the proliferation of car orientated edge-of-town/out of town hypermarkets in the 1990s.
7. The intention was to undertake 10 on each street but this target proved impossible to achieve. As a result, material from the 10 street interviews is included and no claim is therefore made in relation to how representative the interviews are of the wider community.
8. Local term for a person with little sense.