ABSTRACT
This case-study gives special prominence to the Dart played by public planning policies in determining the form and amount of shopping centre development in Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding metropolitan area. The emphasis is induced mainly by the fact that all new retailing activity in Britain is subject to a strong body of planning legislation (see Chapter 3); but the local authorities within and around Tyneside have also been particularly active in seeking to control the nature of change within the local retail system. The casestudy differs from most of the others, too, in terms of its scale perspective and the type of environment in which new shopping centre development has taken place. Newcastle and its surrounding area, whilst being large, commands neither international significance nor national prominence as a major growth point. On the contrary, it is a provincial city whose economy is in decline; hence the scope for new retailing development has been both smaller and different in kind from that found in those !world c ities’ treated in earlier chapters. Our review of what kinds of development have been allowed and encouraged to take place is preceded by a brief description of the constraints affecting development, including the legacies of past retailing investment.
