FOOTFALL counters which Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council spent £7,000 on appear to show a significant decrease in the number of people visiting the Top of Town following a project to improve the area.

However, figures obtained by the Gazette raise questions over their purpose after showing no comparison.

As previously reported in the Gazette, the borough council provided a breakdown of where it spent £280,000 during a six-year programme to improve the area and increase the number of visitors.

This included £7,000 used on footfall counters to monitor the number of people in the area for three years.

However, when the Gazette asked to see the figures from these counters, they did not show any comparison. 

The council said the footfall counters, located in Church Street and Wote Street, started on February 20, 2015, and ended on February 15, 2018. 

The figures given showed the first ‘year’ from February 20, 2015, to March 31, 2016 (13 months and one week), when 3,677,993 people visited the area.

The second year from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017 showed 3,249,867 people visited the area, which is a decrease from the previous year.

However, the previous year’s figures have more than an extra month included.

And the final figure represents just 10 months and two weeks, from April 1, 2017 to February 15, 2018, when 2,734,414 people visited the area.

None of the figures offer any comparison, making it difficult on first glance to tell whether the project has resulted in an increase or decrease in visitors to the area, and raising questions over what was the point of the counters.

The Gazette has calculated the figures for the approximate number of visitors per month, which shows a significant decrease of more than 17,000 people per month over the period of the count, which represents a drop of more than six per cent.

Response from the council

Councillor Rebecca Bean, whose responsibilities include development in the borough, said: “Across the country high streets and town centres are facing significant challenges with footfall in decline and shop closures.

“We are not standing still and we continue to work together with our partners, such as the Basingstoke Together Business Improvement District, to try to attract more people to our town centre.

"But whatever we do, we will not make a difference without the help of our residents and media and I would encourage everyone to shop local and support our high street.”

Lucy Boazman, chief executive of Basingstoke Together, added: “Nationally footfall has declined by 11 per cent so having a six per cent decline is not as bad. It’s a difficult trading environment for all retailers at the moment but there is lots of things being done to try and manage that decline.

"We are well below the national average for that decline and it’s showing that what we are doing is working, although there’s always more work that can be done. The footfall and promotion of the Top of Town is one of our key objectives.”