Oswestry21

While a town centre depends on trade and commerce, it is also a public place and space. It is a place to be, to walk, to sit, to watch, to meet, to talk. These are human activities that contribute as much to life as buying and selling, and which define societies and communities the world over. To create an entire environment on the edge of a town centre which is designed and formulated solely for the purpose of buying, selling and car parking, with no thought given over to public space and the myriad ways in which people naturally and socially use it, is a negation of life and humanity. 

This alone, apart from environmental and economic factors, is reason enough to see town centres as needing to be considered as integrated social environments; for work, commerce, residence, leisure and just being. It shouldn’t cause us to wonder why self centredness, anti-social behaviour and a sense of personal isolation grow to become societal norms when surroundings that deny the crucial and positive but economically unproductive aspects of being a member of a community become so prevalent.