First Impressions of Renewed Area - Cranmer Street

First Impressions of Ridley Street:

After we had surveyed Cranmer Street we went onto the next renewed area, which was the next street Ridley Street. The houses are Pre 19th Century Housing (1857). But there were a lot of differences and improvements on Ridley Street and it looked more attractive. Land use is the same as Cranmer Street but Ridley Street was Wider and the condition of the street was much better. First impressions of Dog Litter are very good. Signs showing £1000 fine if dog owner was found not clearing up after the mess. Another major improvement was a car park for the residents living in the area. Could fir around 15-20 cars. An advantage for the area’s residents is the local Infants school nearby. For the residents living down the street it’s a 1-minute walk. 2 of the houses on the street ha stone cladding done. This is when the front of the house has been covered coloured stone or some sort of solid material that looks like stone. In theory this would make the houses value increase but only two of the houses on the street had stone cladding done, it might look nice but it really does not fit in. Lots of Fast-food restaurants are available close by (approximately 6-10 take-away on Hinckley Road). Lots of independent shops on Hinckley Road e.g. photo copy shops supermarkets, lots of second hand shops and cafes. This is very good for the residents, as they do not have to travel to another area to get some shopping or buy an item. Everything is local. A big disadvantage for both streets Cranmer and Ridley Street was the wheelie bins are right outside their house. This makes the pavements even narrow by reducing space. This also deducts the value of the house; this is because there is no space available to the homeowners. Around 4 houses on Cranmer Street were for sale and 3 houses in Ridley Street. Looking at the conditions of the houses overall and the amount of independent businesses available close by the houses would get sold extremely fast also there is a local school nearby (1 Infant and 1 Primary school). The houses would probably get sold to young couples because of the local schools nearby or college/university students wanting to rent the house out. The road conditions are better than of Cranmer Street. The road looks as if it has been Re-tarmac. In our Traffic Survey it scored pretty impressive. In 5 minutes only 11 cars went through. In the Environmental Features survey that was done Ridley Street scored considerably higher than Cranmer Street. Scoring 85 out of a possible 120. My conclusion is that people like me would not mind living in this area because of the amount of Resources available.    

Renewed area is an effective way of improving the inner city.

First Impressions of Dane Street

Redeveloped Area.

After we had done the survey on Cranmer and Ridley Street (Renewed Area) we headed off to Dane Street that is a fairly new area (Redeveloped Area). They are Post 1970 houses; this means that the street will have a modern look. A traffic survey was carried out on Andrews Street (Dane Street is off Andrews Street) and unfortunately it was the busiest street in the area. The amount of cars that went through Andrews street was 25 cars. That is roughly 7 cars on average per minute going through Andrews Street. Surprisingly not even 1 car went through Dane Street. The Quietest Street in the area. The reason why Andrews street was the busiest street is because of the local primary school right next to Dane Street. Teachers and the Students have to come to this school 5 days a week. This is also a big danger to the children, if they were unattended at one moment they could run onto the road and with all those cars going through the street there is a possibility that an accident will occur. Despite all this traffic from Andrews street Dane street was surprisingly quiet. There is also a main road running next to Dane street and that is Narborough Road. Traffic noise is heard able   but not a lot. The real main danger from the main road and Andrews Street is the amount of Air Pollution created from traffic. Here is an example of how much CO2 is being emitted:

1 car goes through Hinckley Road every 5 seconds. So in 5 minutes 60 cars go through. Most of the cars that went through the area were fairly new cars (m - t registration) and the cars that were most popular were Ford Focus and the Vauxhall Vectra. A 2 litre version of both cars would emit roughly 200 g/km of co2 times that by 60 = 12000 grams of Co2 in 1km. This figure is excluding Vans and HGV Trucks. So this could increase to 20,000’s of grams. I also did a Car type survey seeing what types of cars are in the area. Overall the area is very affluent (well off). In Dane Street 10 out of 25 cars were fairly new cars (M registration to T Registration). This is showing that the employment in the area is high and the unemployment is fairly low considering that there were 6 older cars (lower wage).

The condition of the pavements was very good considering that the area is redeveloped. But there were signs of vandalism. Benches were broken and dustbins with graphite on. Dog litter control was excellent, signs posted on lampposts suggesting fine if not cleared this shows that the residents are taking responsibility to clean up. Lots of lighting on the street this is good especially for elderly people and disabled people who walk at night. The road had been re-tarmac and there were no signs of extreme wear on the road surface. Each home had their own driveway this means that the residents do not have to walk 15 metres just to get to their car. There is a front yard for the houses on Dane St. unfortunately the front yards have not been look after properly e.g. the grass has turned into mud this can be dangerous as the owner of the house can slip and get hurt. Redevelopment is an effective way of improving the inner city this is because the quality of living is higher than renewal also I would like to live here because of the standard of housing and facilities.        

First Impressions of Bede Island

After we had done the environmental survey and evaluation on Dane street and Andrews street we headed off to Bede Island. This is the completely new housing estate only 4-8 years old. First impressions are very good. The housing conditions are superb. High standards are kept (considering they are nearly new houses). The houses are available in 2 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms. Each house had its own driveway. This is an advantage, as the renewed area we surveyed did not have driveways for its houses. It looked as if some of the houses on Bede Island were on rent. This is because the doors of some of the houses were the same colour. In the environmental survey Bede Island did extremely well scoring an impressive 105 out of a possible 120. The condition of the pavements was very good scoring 8 put of 10. The driveway of the houses was a little disappointing; most of them had oil spills from cars and was unpleasant to look at showing that the residents did not exactly take care for their driveways. The condition of the houses was very good. Road surface conditions was very good not one ditch found on the surface. The lighting on the street is very modern powerful and more efficient than the older ones also good for elderly and disabled people at night. Dog litter was also excellent here signs put up suggesting the fine therefore keeping the streets clean. The amount of parks and free space in Bede Island is the best in Leicester. Scoring 10 out of 10 for parks and other leisure facilities and the amount of greenery in Bede Island is Very good. Unfortunately there was a lot of graphite and vandalism in Bede Island. All benches are covered in offensive material and the dustbins have been vandalized. Another reason why houses will sell very fast is because there is no traffic noise at all. In the traffic survey only 4 cars passed through the street of Bede Island. And 50 % of which were fairly new cars (M-T) showing that the area is affluent. Less pollution will occur in the area because of the amount of cars going through the area. I had done a questionnaire and asked some people what they think of the area and how they would improve it they replied and were willing to answer my questions, one of the questions asked was “what don’t you like about the area?” and 9 out of 10 said the amount of rubbish on the pavements. If I had a choice to live in one of the 4 streets surveyed I would like to live in Bede Island this is because of the facilities available.