Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of local areas and the economic effects of the loss of local control led the New Eco-
nomic Foundation in Britain to publish two reports (Potts et al.
2005
; Ryan-Collins
et al.
2010
). They investigated the extent to which the High Streets (main shopping
streets) in British towns were filled by chain stores, creating a scale from 0 to 100
to measure their degree of domination and presence of independent businesses. The
survey discovered that only 36% of these main shopping streets had more than
two-thirds independent stores, with another 41 % being dominated by chain stores.
These were given the title of Clone Towns because they all looked the same, with
26 % in the border clone category. The problem was not only seen as a problem of
the boring similarity in townscapes, but in the fact that big chains invested less in
local activities, sent most of their profits away, and had often abandoned city centre
locations for out-of-towns areas, less accessible for those without cars, or closed
the stores if they were less profitable than the average in the chain. This has left big
gaps in many downtown townscapes, often filled by not-for-profit charity stores. It
was noted that the university town of Cambridge had the highest clone score of 92.1
in its main street, a feature which contrasted with the distinctiveness of its historic
university colleges and churches. Whitstable in Kent was the lowest at 11.6, and
was the most independent place, which may be a result of its local Oyster Festival
and its growing reputation as a local food centre, although its small size and limited
hinterland probably did not attract many national chain stores. The reports stressed
the need to support local businesses to make them less dependent on negative deci-
sions made elsewhere, which provides support for the Transition Town approach of
finding ways to improve the local resilience of towns.
In terms of local ownership the Totnes Energy Company has already provided
one example of the way that a re-localization is being pioneered in energy creation
in Transition Towns. The Totnes Development Trust has a wider remit, for it is a
local organization established to provide finance and managerial advice for local
businesses. In addition it has helped create the Atmos project, which has taken over
the site of a large Dairy operation that closed in 2007. The site originated as a power
plant in 1845, part of Brunel's attempt to build what he called an 'atmospheric
railway' to Newton Abbot and Exeter. Despite its investment of over οΎ£ 400,000 it
failed 3 years later because of various technical problems, such as creating effective
seals on the vacuum tubes. The site has been home to many businesses since, and
still contains some of Brunel's original buildings, providing a valuable heritage
resource connection. Financially the Atmos project relies on members of the com-
munity buying shares in the project to raise capital for the development. The site is
being designed as a local entrepreneurial hub for start-up businesses, hopefully with
more fortune than Brunel's project, and contains what is described as an eco-village
of apartments using power from a large number of solar panels to create a carbon-
free settlement. This type of local community investment obviously occurred in the
past when local banks operated, but decayed as they were amalgamated into large
national enterprises in Britain as well as other countries. However there are some
regions where the local banking tradition is still alive. For example, in the Prairie
Provinces of Canada so-called Community Chests have been created in many small
towns, which are financial organizations in which local investors provide money
