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
Meadowhall Interchange from the Hallam and Penistone Lines. Platforms 1 and 2 are a pair of side platforms located closest to the shopping centre on the Dearne Valley Line. Platforms 3 and 4 are a pair of side platforms located on the other side of the central open-air concourse on the Hallam and Penistone Lines, laid out at a 45 degree angle to platforms 1 and 2. The light rail platforms, numbered MEI1 and MEI2, are located immediately behind and parallel to platform 1; they are constructed in an island layout. Since the cessation of off-peak Purple Line services to Meadowhall Interchange,