Manchester Arndale a shopping centre, it never recovered. Stocks argues that these factors lay behind the Greater Manchester County Council's (GMC) strategic view that the county had too much retail capacity. From 1977 onwards the GMC consistently opposed further development, and would not support any before 1986. Trade increased in the early 1980s, though GMC policy against development and for retaining the relative importance of the retail centres remained. By the mid-1980s, the trend in retailing had moved from city-centres to out-of-town. The opening of Meadowhall Centre in 1990 added to the retail impact in the Sheffield city centre. The GMC was
Valley Park Retail Area to a development company who split it in to different stores with DFS as the main anchor store . Valley Park Retail park was completed in 1996 The retail area is the main shopping park and includes big name stores such as DFS, which has operated on the same site since 1996. A branch of Philip Green's Arcadia Group Outfit chain is located in the park. Other stores include Sports Direct, Next, Boots and B&Q. B&Q's store is in a separate warehouse and has its own car park. The leisure park opened in late 1995/early 1996 with Megabowl and Ritz