Inequalities

Outline some of the inequalities on a street that you know. When I think about Peebles high street, I see a street that looks exactly the same as it did 50 years ago. But the differences between now and then are tremendous. Stucturally, every building is the same as it was, but there is only 1 shop there now that was there 50 years ago. Forsyths & Sons have been trading in the same place since 1938! Peebles, as a town has won awards for having a greater number of independent traders rather than big chains. When I was a small girl, I loved nothing more than getting my pocket money on a Friday afternoon and going along to the local sweet shop to spend it. I was probably 7/8 at the time, and mothers didn't think twice about sending us on our own, to go to the shops. Because Peebles was quite a small town then, there was no harm in sending you along to 'Bettys' to get a pint of milk or a loaf of bread. Everyone knew everyone and even if you didn't need shopping, people would just pop into the shop for a quick chat, or to meet your friends. Nowadays, that would be exremely frowned upon, in any shop or on any street. One of the similarities between City Road, Cardiff and Peebles high street is the young people hanging around at night , outside the local chip shop. This causes problems for the people who live above but unlike City Road, people are not afraid to walk past them. This doesn't mean that Peebles has no crime. It does! But I think, only because the young have nowhere to go. Peebles doesn't have a Mackintosh Centre like City Road does. The young just tend to hang about on the street corners or outside the chippy. Unfortunately, Peebles doesn't cater for young people. It's more for the elderly or tourists. Which is why, I think, that the crime rate and drug problem keeps rising. The kids have nothing to do and nowhere to go when school is finished, so they probably think that if they do petty crimes and smoke/take drugs, it's better than sitting in their house day in, day out, doing nothing. I think that one of the biggest differences between City Road and Peebles high street is that Peebles high street has no ethnicity. Whereas City Road “has been made and remade by migrants from other parts of the UK and overseas” (Learning companion 1). The number of foreign traders is far greather on City Road than it is in Peebles. The high street has ONE Indian restaurant. There is one chippy, but owned by locals. But at the other end of the spectrum, Peebles has 7/8 charity shops on it's high street. Also competeing for the most number of similar shops is tourist/gift shops. Which takes me back to the fact I made earlier about Peebles only catering for the elderly or tourists. Whereas, I think that City Road actually caters for all. Like City Road in Cardiff, the traffic on Peebles high street is probably typical of any high street . There are the usual types of traffic – cars, buses and delivery vans/lorries. There is one zebra crossing but that was only put down because the people of Peebles complained and petitioned so much to get one, because there was so many accidents. Peebles is on the main road to Edinburgh so there are always big arctic lorries driving along, at all times of the day and night. I think that for the size of the high street, it can't really cater for lorries of that size. Lastly, Peebles is an extremely historical town and it shows on the high street, with all the plaques and buildings. I think this could be why it attracts so many tourists throughout the year. Also the fact that it sits on the river tweed. It's all very well, the tourists coming for day trips etc, but what about the young' Give them somewhere to go and something to do, then they might actually stay in the town! Instead of turning to petty crime to relieve the boredom. The people of Peebles need to KEEP the people of Peebles! Word count: 722 References Learning companion 1, Milton Keynes, The Open University