Eastbourne – Land use changes as you move towards the sea front
Eastbourne is large in tourism and also has a large beach, which has been managed. There has been a big project which lasted for 4 years to rebuild the groins. But by re-building them, it loses beach material. There is lots of land between the beach and houses. If the beach were to disappear, it would bring the economy right down and holiday workers will lose a huge sum of money.
Senior citizens come to Eastbourne and retire there. If the beach were to disappear, then there would be a drain on the council’s resources for the senior citizens and they wouldn’t have any supplies for anything. So by providing these people with resources, it obviously counts a lot on the council’s economy as a lot of the money comes out from it, so therefore, the beach should remain there.
Hypothesis
Land use changed as moved towards the sea front.
Method
We walked around the area and identified different types of land uses. Along the main road near Eastbourne Station, the variety of individual uses was recorded under different classes such as Residential, Industrial or Commercial. The different types of building were written as a number followed by a code letter, depending on what it was classified as.
After this took place, a Questionnaire was made by asking a number of people walking in and around Eastbourne and recording their answers. This consisted things such as how far they travelled to reach Eastbourne and also approximately how far they travelled.
Conclusion
Eastbourne does have a large sphere of influence. Because it’s famous for its tourist industry, it attracts many senior citizens. There are a large number of hotels, restaurants and shops for local people and the villages around. Eastbourne is a tourist-orientated town with a lot to offer, such as entertainment, cinemas, restaurants and theatres. There are not a large number of young people as it wasn’t a main holiday season or a weekend. If we had done our research on a weekend, we would have seen children stating over. Elderly people have trips to Eastbourne to either relax or retire there. Especially at this time of year from now until early December, there will be a large number of elderly people who go there for ‘tinsel and turkey weekends’, to have their Christmas dinner.
There are hotels in Eastbourne for people such as conservatives, so the hotels will offer conference facilities for them.
Evaluation
If a longer time were spent in Eastbourne, it would have been possible to have spent more time with the surveys on different days, to produce range of different results. Or even on a Saturday or a Sunday, which would have made a big difference. If the questionnaire was taken at different times of the day, like 3 or 4 for example, then there would have been a better spread of results from different age groups, as some children may have been at school at the time or adults may have been at work.
Also, if a survey were taken at the coach park, there would have been a spread of locations as we could have noted where the coaches were coming from.
