The decline of Town centres

[Judith]

Idun,

I do know the walking problem, fine if nothing to carry, but less able now to walk as far.  To think I used to walk to work and back every day - 30 mins plus each way!  As for the towns you mention. ... these all seem to be places where something has been done to attract visitors - Skipton has a rather nice castle, for example, whilst the council and residents are happy to encourage shopping in the town itself and make something of it.  Another town I found managed this was Helmseley - though parking was "interesting" there the day I visited - I think market might just have finished. 

And yes, once you get to the bigger towns in France parking becomes less easy.  Our next local town (where there is plenty free as I said) has introduced a blue disk system, a bit like I remember from Harrogate - and all you need is a disk, from the mairie, to park for free for 1and half hours ... in the town centre ... so it can be done, even here in France ...

[YCCMB]

I was curious, so I just checked. My largest local town in France has a population of some 27 thousand (rounded up), and its metropolitan area boasts some 57 thousand souls. It covers an area of roughly 45 square Km The population density is 579 per square Km.

My two local towns in the UK, which merge into one another, more or less, so I guess it's fair to include them both for the sake of comparison, have a combined population of over 250 thousand...so getting close to ten times more. Slough covers 33 square Km, and the population density is 4300 per square Km. I can't get the stats for Windsor because they all cover the whole of the borough.

Seems there's a lot more available parking space in my bit of France, compared to my bit of the UK. But, to be fair, there's also a lot more within walking distance. I guess the other major consideration in France is that far more people have to drive to places to get anything done, so they need to be able to park when they get there. And in the UK these days as has been said, you can do so much of your shopping, banking and day-to-day stuff online (and mostly there's free delivery...still a bit of a luxury in France).

Comparing apples with something more comparable, it's interesting that Paris, along with several other major cities, has just had to introduce measures to ban cars on alternate days due to air pollution. Another urban issue which doesn't really impact on la France Profonde.