The New Town policy in the UK has been a failure Essay Example

The New Town policy in the UK has been a failure Paper The original concepts of new towns date back from1799 and New Lanark on the banks of the river Clyde by Robert Owen. It was built as an industrial town with houses for the workers in the cotton mills. The next main historical event in the development of new town policy comes from Ebenezer Howard and his theory of Garden Cities. He published a book called Garden Cities of Tomorrow, this lead to the building of Letchworth in 1903 and Welwyn Garden City in 1919. After the Second World War Sir Patrick Abercrombie put forward a proposal to build 10 satellite towns beyond Londons green belt. These mainly to be built north of London although a few (Crawley and Bracknell etc) were built south of London. This lead to the passing of the new town act in 1946. This allowed for the provision of 28 new towns, 8 of them within 30 miles of London and the rest scattered around the UK. The new towns were chosen for their location, e.g. Bracknell (built in 1949) was 28 miles west of London and 18 miles from Heathrow. Its site was chosen in favour of White Waltham as it was close to an airfield and there was suitable land available. We will write a custom essay sample on The New Town policy in the UK has been a failure specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The New Town policy in the UK has been a failure specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The New Town policy in the UK has been a failure specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The end of the new towns act was in 1977, and meant that new towns stopped being built. Those that were currently under construction such as Milton Keynes were continued until they were completed, 1992 for Milton Keynes. The act was withdrawn because it was felt that although the new towns were being filled they were just drawing people from the inner cities, and hence the inner cities were starting to decline. At this point the government decided to completely reverse its policy and actively try to improve the inner cities, an example being the comprehensive overhaul of the London Docklands. Purpose of New Towns In order to assess whether new town policy has been a success we must look at the purpose for the development of new towns. This can be split into five main subsections: They were originally proposed as over-spill towns from London, intended to re-house the population from inner cities in a series of slum clearances after the second world war had destroyed much of London. Areas such as the Docklands and Canary Wharf are key areas that were cleared in order that they might be redeveloped. The displaced population was relocated in the new towns such as Bracknell, Crawley and the new town of East Kilbride taking people from the slums of Glasgow, namely the Gorbals. In order that the towns might become self-sufficient it was intended that industry and business would relocate to the new towns. In order to encourage them to move incentive schemes were instigated and premises built so that companies could move, housing close to the factories and offices were also provided so that they could take their workforce with them. New towns were also built to try and promote areas with untapped resources. Towns such as Corby were founded and housing built to support the industry around it. This meant that the inhabitants had a job laid out for them when they moved to their new house. However when the resource runs out the town is left without its main source of employment and so the number of people who are jobless rises sharply. New towns were seen as a way of allowing people to settle in remote areas that had low population densities. Around Newtown in mid Wales for example there were originally only small towns and villages as well as a few farms. Newtown meant that a new trunk road was built and attracted large multinational companies like Laura Ashley (subsequently relocated) and other distribution firms. The fifth and final reason for the development of new towns is to revitalise run down areas. This happened in Peterlee and Washington in the North of England. In much the same ways as other new towns were built they were constructed with housing groups and industry to provide jobs as well as incentives to attract the companies. Evidence The new town policy was discontinued in 1977. There are a number of possible reasons for this: * It may be that no more housing is required and hence building more new towns would just lead to an over provision for housing and cause house prices to fall and lead to large scale negative equity, thus forcing the country into a recession. * It may have been felt that the new towns were expanding too quickly and not respecting green-belt land. Consequently the act was stopped with the thought that this would preserve some of the open land. * Inner cities were felt to be declining as the general trend was to re-house people from these inner city areas as so they were not having the investment made in them. Areas such as the London Docklands and Canary Wharf are obvious examples of areas that have since benefited from the change in policy concerning new towns. The new town policy has been criticised for having been a failure; some have argued that because the early new towns were built with the houses first in an attempt to relocate as many people as possible as quickly as possible, jobs for those who moved were not provided. This lead to a large percentage of the population of the early new towns being out of work and unemployed, leading to a stigma being attached to the new towns as areas for the lower classes. This was changed in later new towns as for example in Milton Keynes where industry moved with a certain amount of workforce, as well as a Central Business eXchange (CBX) being built and a large shopping complex in the centre with provision for parking all around the outside. New towns that built up around a particular resource soon collapsed when the resource ran out, for example in Corby an industry was set-up around the steelworks providing many hundreds of jobs for the inhabitants of Corby. This however was the main source of employment in the town and so when the resource (iron ore) ran out the industry had to close, causing the loss of those many hundreds of jobs. This problem was one inherent in the construction of a town with just one main source of employment and can only be catered for by ensuring that either the employment continues or that there is some other form of employment for the town. Corby was therefore learnt from and the later new towns did not have one sole industry. A fundamental problem with the new towns was the policy of creating socially mixed housing. Whilst it was understood that houses of all sizes should be created in order to cater for all it was felt that areas of socially mixed housing would be a good idea. However the people living in the houses did not want to be in areas of either socially or ethnically mixed housing. Thus managers did not want to be living next to the factory floor workers. However the new towns were built in small neighbourhoods around each other. This meant that it was not necessary to take the car in order to purchase convenience goods such a milk and bread. With a good network of pleasant paths it is possible to go entirely by foot or by bike. The networks of roads in a new town are quite often laid out geometrically. In Milton Keynes for example the road are spaced at one kilometre intervals and at 90à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to each other, this thereby creates a traffic grid which allows cars and buses to move along with the minimal amount of hassle. It is however in this that yet another problem with new towns lies: It relies heavily on the car. To use Milton Keynes again as an example the central shopping centre has many hundreds of car park spaces, but is surrounded firstly by the car park, then by a ring of industry, and only then does the first set of housing start. This means that anyone who wants to go shopping but does not have a car is forced to use public transport, as it is impossible to go to the shops and carry the purchases back. The building of new towns has allowed for some radical rethinks into the way that houses are built and positioned. Energy saving houses that lose less than 1% of their heat to the surroundings by the use of heat exchanges and solar panels have been developed in some new towns, setting the way for further housing. Finally the new town policy has created towns that are fairly well countrified, and although they are often lumps of concrete in the middle of green open areas they are well countrified. With millions of trees having been planted for instance in Milton Keynes it will ensure that the surroundings are pleasant for the inhabitants. So has the policy of new towns been a failure or a success. To recap we have the problems of inner cities becoming dilapidated, social housing areas, lack of jobs, collapse of industry and the reliance on the car. Beside this there are the positive points of the development of futuristic housing, re-housing of slums, relocation of business out of the city centres, promotion of new resources and the revitalisation of remote and run down areas. We can therefore conclude that although new towns have many disadvantages the policy was right to try and move people away from the slums but should have redeveloped those areas immediately so that they did not fuel the cycle. The implementation of well structured new towns with adequate services and networks is a much better alternative to an unplanned urban sprawl which we see starting to spread its way across Englands countryside.

Statistics Coursework Authorship Essay Example

Statistics Coursework Authorship Essay Example Statistics Coursework Authorship Essay Statistics Coursework Authorship Essay My aim is to investigate whether it is possible to gain information about authorship of a text by using statistical measures. I will investigate the authorship of an Adult text and a Child text. I will calculate the mean of the distribution for both populations. From this, I will calculate the standard deviation and variance. I will use the unbiased estimator for both populations. I will calculate the standard error and confidence intervals for both populations. I will represent my data using frequency distribution tables. I will put my results into a frequency distribution graph. For the confidence intervals, I will use normal distribution diagrams. Hypothesis I predict that there will be more letters per word in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and fewer in Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl. Therefore, the mean in Great Expectations will also be larger. I expect Great Expectations to have a larger standard deviation because of the use of a larger vocabulary. Population I will randomly select 50 pages from each book by using the RAND function in Microsoft Excel. Once I have 50 random pages for each book, I will select a random line for each page. I will finally select a random word from each line. Using the RAND function I got my random numbers by using the following process. e.g. 248 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ RAND (248 = number of pages in book) 36 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ RAND (36 = number of lines on page) 13 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ RAND (13 = number of words on line) I will count the number of lines on each page and times this with the RAND function to make the random number correct each time. I will also use this same process with which word to select on each line. Sampling Sampling is the selection of individual members from a population. The advantage of taking a sample is that it is cheaper, quicker and the results are easier to analyse than the results of a census. However, the disadvantage is the results may include natural variation or bias and so may not be representative of the whole population and it may not be accurate. There are rules that must be followed when choosing a sample. The sample size must be large enough so that the results are more accurate. A very small sample may not represent the rest of the population. So I must make sure that any sample I take is large enough to be representative of the population as a whole. So in order to get more accurate results and for the data I collect to be representative of the whole population, I am going to take 50 samples in total for both the books. The sample should be taken at random. If a random sample is not taken, then my results may be biased. If I choose which page and which line, I wanted to count the number of words then I will end up with data, which is unrepresentative. So in order to get a set of data, which is representative, I used the RAND function in Microsoft Excel to get the random page number, line number and word number. Method For this investigation, I am finding out whether it possible to gain information about authorship of a text. I will be using and adult text and a child text. The adult text that I will be using is Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. This book consists of 484 pages. The child text I will be using is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl. This book consists of 190 minus eight pages at the beginning of the text. I will select 50 random pages from each book. I will then select a random line and word on each of these pages. Assumptions The distribution of the parent population is normal. We have to assume that the distribution of the sample is also normal to have accurate results. I have assumed that a sample size of 50 would give me a normal distribution. Statistical Theory After collecting the data, I will set the results out in a tally chart because it is easier to understand and analyse. I will use the central limit theorem because it will make it easier to make predictions about the distribution of the sample mean even if the distribution of the parent population is not known. I will draw a frequency distribution graph to show the distribution of the data for both books. I will also work out the mean to work out the average. The variance and standard deviation would help me measure the spread of the data. If I work out the standard error then it will help me to be confident in my estimate of the population mean. In addition, I am going to use unbiased estimation because this will help me to find the variance of the parent population.

Notes on Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Notes on Nursing - Essay Example Notes on Nursing Each of these experiences had an impact on me, although in different ways. I had only made my way through a few pages of â€Å"Notes on Nursing† when I came across a select few pages of Florence Nightingale’s words that changed the way I thought. Nightingale mentions the five essential steps to securing the health of houses as pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, and sufficient lighting. After that, I felt embarrassed at the fact that I had previously always kept my house closed up due to some of my seasonal allergies. Also, I never opened the blinds to let light in or opened the windows to let fresh air into the house. In the section titled â€Å"Ventilation and Warming,† Florence Nightingale stated: â€Å"Even in health, people cannot repeatedly breathe in air with impunity, on account of it becoming charged with unwholesome matter from the lungs and skin. In disease, where everything given off from the body is highly noxious and dangerous, n ot only must there be plenty of ventilation to carry off the effluvia, but everything that the patient passes must be instantly removed because it may be more noxious than even the emanations from the sick†. In response to this new information, my blinds and windows are now opened every day for the benefit of my three year old daughter’s health and also my own. Nightingale continues on by mentioning how nurses leave full urinals and full emesis basins at the bedsides of their patients. She comments that this habit is unhealthy and may have a long term detrimental effect on patients who are exposed to this on a regular basis. These thoughts caused me to reflect on myself as a nurse. As often happens, I tend to get so caught up in the internal business of the emergency department that I forget the little things that could make patients unhealthy. I now make sure that I always empty urinals immediately, no matter how busy I am. If I cannot take the time to perform these si mple tasks, then I could no longer be considered as a responsible nurse. In reflecting on this, I was somewhat embarrassed by the neglect that I was displaying towards people in my own household and also my patients at the hospital. Working in the emergency department is quite tough, as I find myself feeling glum on a daily basis. There is always commotion going on, with patients coming in and going out amidst all of the noise. I often feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of patients and also the level of responsibility that I have as a charge nurse, triage nurse, preceptor, and mentor. I often wonder how I came to be in the position that I am currently in. Am I really up to the task or am I just an imposter who does not really know what to do at all? Reading â€Å"Notes on Nursing† and realizing the simple things that I was neglecting to do for my patients as registered nurse helped me to answer this question. After I felt like I was unsure of my abilities as a nurse, Patric ia Benner’s â€Å"From Novice to Expert† restored my confidence to what it was when I first entered the nursing profession. I was able to recognize the strides that I have made over the last five and a half years and realized that I am, in fact, a proficient nurse and am extremely capable of accomplishing even more in my role as a registered nurse in my emergency department. â€Å"Proficient and expert nurses develop clusters of paradigm cases around different patient care issues so that they approach a patient core situation