Leicester - A case study of a major city in the UK

Leicester is located in the county of Leicestershire in the East Midlands. 

A city of historical importance Leicester is one of the oldest cities in the UK and has been an important settlement since AD43 when the Romans settled. In the Middle Ages Leicester was in an area of unrest and the final battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought not far from the city. Richard III’s resting place has since been unearther as the ‘King in the carpark’. Leicester’s cathedral was first built during this time and many other parts of the city such as Grey Friars as a Franciscan Friary, Magazine and the Guildhall.

Between 1500 and 1700 the wool trade flourished in Leicester and King Charles I lay siege to the city during the Civil War. After the 1700s the knitting industry became very successful and Leicester became the centre of hosiery. The new wealth of the city could be seen in the wide paved streets and genteel houses. During the Victorian era the population on the town grew from 40,000 to 212, 000 due to the industrial development of the city. Many of the iconic buildings of today were built then such as the Town Hall and Newarke Museum and parks created such as Abbey Park. Into the 20th Century and Leicester expanded from hosiery and footwear to light engineering businesses such as scientific instruments and typewriters. Today Leicester has a successful Research and Development industry, with a large cluster of creative businesses, second only to London. 

The Importance of Leicester 

 Leicester has two universties, De Montford and Leicester, which attract students globally. It is one of the most culturally diverse cities in Europe. Leicester not only boasts the cathedral as a place of worship, but there is also a synagogue, Hindu temple and mosque.The city celebrates Diwali and others include the Caribbean Festival, Black History month, Leicester Pride and Bands in the Park. As seen above the historical importance of Leicester attracts tourists particualry to King Richard III museum and the cathedral. People are also attracted to the National Space Centre and football at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium and rugby at Welford Road.The textile’ industry remains imnportant and companies such as Next employ over 28,000 people in the region. Leicester’s industry is promoted further with a business festival that promotes links between the region and India and Leicester City football club promotes links with Thailand. Foreign Direct Investment of over £26 million has been provided in Leicester by firms like IBM and Hastings Direct.

The business links, particulalry with India have come about due to the migration of people into the city. 33% of Leicester’s population of 383,300 (2016) were not born in the UK. The migrant population has increased 71.7% in the 10 years to 2013 from 64, 560 to 110,843. 

Narborough Road is said to be the most diverse streets in the UK, boasting that 22 countries are represented along its length. The large number of migrants means that the city is one of the youngest in the UK, with an average age of 36.9 years. 20% of the population are under 15, so that there are more young people than pensioners, only 11%. Leicester has the second fastest growth rate in the UK at 1.3% (2016-2017). The population is currently about 400,000. 

Leicester’s youthful population originating from its high number of migrants as well as including 40,000 students means there are a range of social (recreational) and economic opportunities. 

In terms of entertainment there is Curve where a range of plays and shows for all ages and interests. Workshops are avilable as well as dance and drama classes. There is a Showcase cinema as well as the Phoenix. De Montford Hall holds a range of events including symphony orchestras, musicals, plays and pop concerts. The Great central Railway is the UK’s only Main Line Hertiage Railway and links C Quorn and Loughborough. Leicester is also a popular destination for a night out with a rnage of pubs, cafes, bars and nightclubs. 

Sport in Leicester is successful with Leicester City footbal club and Leicester Tigers rugby both grounds offer facilities for conferences, banqueting, team building and a venue for asian weddings. King Power stadium is also a venue for boxing matches as well as international football and rubgy events. 

Leicester is a popular shopping centre. The High Cross shopping mall was opened in 2008 and its newest extension cost £350 million. There are over 100 shops and 40 bars, cafes and restaurants. Residential apartments are located above the restaurants. Its flagship stores are John Lewis, Zara and JD Sports. Leicester has seen extensive regeneration and there have been improvements in the city centre including pedestrianisation of the high street; installation of CCTV to improve safety; new street furniture and planting of vegetation to improve the streetscape. Public transport has been improved and tourism throughout the city has been improved with upgrading of facitilies including at the cathedral and King Richard III centre. All of these measures attract new investment into the city. 

Economic opportunities 

Aswell as jobs in the servic sector as mentioned above. Employment exists in other forms such as in schools and the universities as well as in the 3 hospitals in the city. The quarternary sector is a growing area in Leicester, encouraging universitiy students to stay in the city and further promote economic growth. 2 examples are the Leicester Space Park and Dock 1 & 2. The Space Park aims to be the leading research and devleopment centre for space related research in the UK. The first phase of this project was compelted in April 2021. In the same neighbourhood as the Space Park is Dock. An R & D focused development attracting businesses such as high tech printers and renewable energy research. 

Leicester city centre competes with the out of town shopping centre of Fosse Park. Fosse Park has 25 stores with a flag ship M & S. It has free parking for 2500 cars and is open 7 days a week until 8pm and 9pm on some days. It is easily accessible by bus.  

Leicester’s Environment 

Transport In 2010 Leicester was ranked 2nd most sustainable city in Britain. In 2018 Leicester University was ranked 14th most sustainable university in the world. The city plans to halve city wide CO2 emissions by 2025 and so halve the city’s carbon footprint. Integrated transport links play a key part in this. During rush hour Leicester can become very congested, but the council are changing things. There is improved connectivity between people and their work places with the A426 Aylestone Road Quality Bus Corridor where fines are enforced for cars using the bus lane. The ISSUE (Intelligent Solutions Sustaining Urban Economies) Project of 2012 aimed to explore technical innovations fro reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality to deliver solutions that enhance the economic, social and environmental health of communities. 

The Beaumont Leys Public Transport Interchange Scheme was completed in 2014 and has seen the introduction of much improved facilities for current and future bus users linking existing and new development, at Ashton Green to the city and adjacent communities. 

 

The new Hay Market Bus Station improves the relaibility and efficiency of buses in Leicester Passengers can track busses with real time information boards and Leicester’s ‘One Card’ for payment has been introduced to allow seamless use of buses and bike hire in the city. The Birstall Park and Ride offers a greener route into the city, located close the the junction of the A46 and A6 in the north of the city commuters and shoppers can park their cars for free and get onto a bus into the city centre for a group ticket of £4 (5 people) or 4 week ticket for £50. There are 2 other Park and Rides at Enderby and Meynell’s Gorse. Leicester are retrofitting a further 53 buses with filters to reduce polluting emissions with £1 million funding form the government. Electric buses will be introduced to the Park and Rides from 2020. 

To encourage a healthier lifestyle in Leicester and double everyday cycling numbers ther have been a number of cycle way improvements across the city including on the A50. Each year the city is closed to traffic for the Cycle City Active City event. 

Urban Greening 

Open spaces will be protected and connectivity between wildlife areas will be improved. There are a number of open spaces in Leicester, such as, Abbey Park, Braunstone Park and Aylestone Meadows which is a nature reserve in the city. Leicester is also cleaning up its waterways to ensure a ‘blue’ corridor linking the city via canals and the River Soar to areas north and south of the city. This not only improves water quality and that of the environment, but also allows recreational activities such as kayaking to be enjoyed. Jubillee Square is an area where the environment has been improved with the laying of grass and planting of shrubs and trees. There is plenty of seating to be able to enjoy the outdoors in the city. This area is also used for events as at Christmas an ice rink and ferris wheel are put up. Another area that has improved its environmental qaulity is around the cathedral where there are sculptures and lawns as well as planted gardens. 

All of these strategies are employed to ensure Leicester as a city develops as a more sutainable urban centre, by reducing air pollution, congestion and improving quality of life with the improvement of green areas and planting trees. Improving health will in turn improve mental health, particulalry if the city is pleasant with green spaces to enjoy and safe cycle lanes and pedestrian areas, so a car is not always necessary. Residents and people who work in the city will be less stressed by using integrated transport links, so they will not be stuck in traffic jams or suffer from health issues brought on by noise and air pollution. 

In terms of waste collection Leicester contracts Biffa to provide a weekly recycling and waste collection service. Orange bags are used for recycling including, paper, plastics and glass and the waste is sent to Material Recovery Facilities. Leicester City Council will collect green waste in green bins which you subscribe to and there is also a subsidised composting scheme. Leicester cloth Nappy Scheme encourages the use if washable nappies rather than sending one use to landfill. A birth to potty kit costs £30 a month to hire. 

Urban Change and problems 

Leicester has changed over the past 100 years from a centre of manufacturing to a city with tertiary, service jobs in shops and offices, as well as teaching and quaternary jobs in reearch and development. Leicester is the second largest hub outside London for R & D. Leicester has also grown in size due to migration. Many smaller towns or villages are now part of Leicester eg Birstall or Thurmaston. 

As Leicester has changed this can lead to urban problems. Since manufacturing shut down as it shifted to countries in SE Asia, the areas were left derelict and crime could become a problem. 

Leicester dye works 21st century

People were left unskilled for the jobs in tertiary and quarternary sectors and so unemployment can become a problem in inner city areas such as those in Leicester. As there are a lack of job opportunities, and people are unemployed these areas of the inner city might become run down and less desireable for peope to live in and a ‘spiral of decline’ can take hold. Rents become cheaper in these less desirable areas and poorer socio-economic groups move in or migrants. Other social problems exist such as poor education in poorly rated schools, less healthy population and a lower life expectancy, all linked to poverty. Some health issues, particualrly in children may be due to pollution in cities caused by living near a main road with heavy traffic. (See document on ‘How urban change has created inequalities). 

This industrial change has led in turn to the environmental challenges of dereliction. Many of the old warehouse and factory sites in Leicester city centre have become rundown and derelict due to closure. An example of this could be found in the Frof Island area of central Leicester. The site up until January 2021 consisted of run down properties that were abandoned and graffitted. It was felt the area did not provide an attractive gateway into the city and so in Januuary 2021 it was demolished. This brown field site is currently being redeveloped to provide low coast housing in the inner city area along with a new secondary school, Castle Mead Academy. 

The ‘Waterside’ at Soar Island as it is known is attracting £350 million of investment for its regeneration.This is the vision for the area by Keepmoat homes. They will also redevelop the area to include areas of public space. Residents nearby see this as an improvement on the rundown factories and inaccessible riverside. This part of the River Soar will also be cleaned up and form part of the ‘blue’ corridor between Leicester and Watermead in the north. 

Here are the pros and cons of building on green and brown field sites. 

Leicester does not have a green belt to protect land around the city from urban sprawl. Instead it has green wedges. The rural fringe around Leicester is under a lot of pressure from development. These include the development of transport networks such as the A46 and M1. The growth of suburban residential developments such as the commuter settlements such as Rothley or Syston or the suburbs of Oadby and Birstall continue to be grow with developments on greenfield sites. Edge of town retail parks have also been built such as Fosse Park, as well as modern industrial estates, for example, the Whittle Estate, Whetstone. These areas on the rural urban fringe are used for recreational and leisure developments too such as Leicestershire Golf Club. The rural urban fringe is under constant presuure from housing development with the Sunstainable Urban Extensions on and beyond the fringe. This will encourage the urban sprawl of Leicester as it merges with areas such as Birstall to the north and then Rothley, Mountsorrel, Quorn and then Loughborough. 

This shows new housing developments in and around Leicester on its rural urban fringe

Many other cities have green belts to limit the growth of urban sprawl. See below. There are over 1.6 million hectares of green belt land in England designed to prevent urban sprawl by keeping areas permanently open and free from 'inappropriate' development.

Green belts in England