Waterside: A Study in Suburban Development Passage
The passage below, "Waterside A Study in Suburban Development," is a common Reading passage in the IELTS exam. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14, which are based on the Reading Passage below.
Waterside A Study in Suburban Development
A. Since the 1950s there has been an increasing trend for extended housing and commercial expansion to take the form of rapid suburban rather than urban growth. There are several factors influencing the location and spread of such development, but an increase in economic activity is the trigger.
B. The area to the west of Southampton Water, now known as Waterside, exemplifies several factors impacting the shape and nature of recent development. Up until the early 1950s this area, occupying a narrow strip of predominantly rural land approximately twenty kilometres long by five kilometres wide between Southampton Water and the New Forest, was relatively sparsely populated. There were a number of small villages, including Hythe, Fawlcy, Holbury, Dibden and Marchwood; communications were poor, and farming and associated industries were the main sources of employment.
C. The main town in the region, Southampton, was and still is one of the major UK ports. In the early part of the twentieth century, Southampton boomed as the growth in passenger numbers on transatlantic liners reached its peak. The main waterway leading to Southampto
n, Southampton Water, enjoys a long stretch of deep water channel suitable for large ocean-going vessels and also benefits from an extended period of high tide because of its position in relation to the Isle of Wight. Existing settlement on the east side of the waterway made further expansion problematic, so a site was chosen on the west side to build a large oil refinery capable of handling the crude oil imported in the cargo holds of the enormous oil tankers than being built. The new oil refinery was built in the mid 1950s between Fawley and the coastal hamlet of Calshot.
D. The effects on the Waterside area were dramatic. Firstly, a major road was built linking the new Fawley refinery to the road network around Southampton. Also, a number of ancillary chemicals and plastics industries developed, dependent on by-products of the refining process. Work opportunities expanded and the population began to grow rapidly as workers and their families moved into the area. House-building took off.
E. The first areas to expand were around Fawlcy village, close to the refinery, and Hythe, the largest of the existing villages, with a ferry link to Southampton. However, although expansion in house-building was rapid, the development of a new commercial centre with a range of services and the provision of an expanded range of educational and health services or entertainment and sporting facilities did not initially take place. Partly, this was due to the proximity of Southampton, with its large range of facilities, now easily accessible through improved road links.
F. But there was another constraint on growth: the limited availability of land. Bordered on the east by Southampton Water, on the south by the sea, and limited to the north by the large village of Totton, almost a suburb of Southampton, there was only one direction expansion could go — westwards.
G. There were, however, limits here too. West of Southampton Water lies the New Forest, an area of ancient woodland and open heath, soon to be designated a National Park. Although it occupies a relatively small area, about 160 square kilometres, the New Forest is a complex and diverse ecosystem supporting a wide variety of plants and animals, many of which are found only in this area or are under threat in other parts of the country. There are stringent planning restrictions on all new building or construction of any kind. Moreover, these restrictions are supported by the local population living within the Forest, who are determined to preserve the unspoilt character of their villages and whose income is increasingly dependent on providing services for the growing tourist industry exploiting the Forest as a leisure resource. In short, development was channelled along a relatively narrow corridor parallel to Southampton Water. The space between existing villages was progressively filled with housing until they coalesced. Little farming land now exists between Dibden and Fawley; housing estates have taken almost all the land. The area around Marchwood, further from Fawley, remains more rural, but some development has taken place here too. Nor has any nucleated commercial centre emerged, though the existing village centres now have more shops, offices and a greater range of public facilities.
H. There is little room for further residential expansion in Waterside except in the area around Dibden Bay. Pressure for new housing development is now less, economic expansion has slowed considerably, and residents in the area are keen to preserve the bay area as a green open space with pleasant waterside views. But there is now a threat from another quarter. While passenger numbers using Southampton have declined, freight container traffic has continued to expand. The port area of Southampton has reached capacity. So the port authorities are looking with speculative eyes at the one as yet undeveloped shoreline of Southampton Water with relatively easy access to deep water for large container ships – Dibden Bay.
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