There’s excellent news for the town centre as new figures show that visitor numbers were up 6% to around 77,000 pedestrians per week. The figures were collected along Hope Street between April and July of this year.
The figures also show Saturday is the busiest day for pedestrians in town, with a peak around midday.
Following an analysis of Wrexham’s High Street performance by the Manchester Metropolitan University back in 2014, a number of recommendations were put forward and last year a new town centre steering group was created to implement a 25-point plan for the town.
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One of these goals was to look at ways of increasing footfall, through initiatives such as enhancing the appearance of town along with developing new events. Data from a new electronic pedestrian counter installed on Hope Street has been feeding through weekly counts to the Town Centre Management team.
“Town has been buoyed by monthly street festivals and community events”
Councillor Terry Evans, Lead Member for the Economy was pleased to see the latest data. He said;
“The town centre team and the steering group have worked hard this year to ensure that the town and our markets are prioritised in terms of appearance and promoted well. Along with cornerstone events like the St David’s Day parade, the food festival and the Victorian Christmas Market – the town has been buoyed by the monthly street festivals and community events that regularly occur throughout town.”
Wrexham is one of seven towns selected to take part in the Innovate Project, a 2-year government backed project to track sales and footfall in Wrexham. Along with the footfall counter, sales data is also collected from a dozen businesses across the town centre every week. This data looks at week on week sales % change and also year on year sales % change.
The businesses currently taking part in the project are spread across the town centre and their sales figures (expressed as a percentage increase or decrease) are submitted every Wednesday. The town centre team then processes the data and return a sales report to each business showing how their sales have done vs the town centre, plus they receive an overall view of sales and footfall in Wrexham.
Officers from Wrexham County Borough Council now hope to install additional counters in other parts of town as they continue to collate more information to support future initiatives and the development of the town as a competitive destination.
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