A TOWN centre attracted record levels of footfall during the heart of the summer.

Wrexham town centre welcomed 102,487 visitors during the week starting Sunday, August 13, with the highest daily count of 17,462 visitors coming on Saturday, August 19.

Cllr Terry Evans, Wrexham Council lead member for economic performance and regeneration, said: “I’m very pleased to see the weekly figure broke the 100,000 mark – that’s fantastic for a single week.

“We normally expect good footfall during the
summer holidays, but this really is excellent, and I hope this will be a further sign of confidence in our town centre and an encouragement to those trading, or looking to trade, in Wrexham.

The count of visitors is recorded by a new pedestrian counter at the corner of Hope Street and Regent Street.

Cllr Evans added: “We’ll have more detailed figures by the end of the quarter and that will help us to look at the knock-on impact this high level of footfall had on traders and overall takings, so we can expect some interesting findings when it comes back.”

After an analysis of Wrexham’s High Street performance by the Manchester Metropolitan University in 2014, several recommendations were put forward and last year a new town centre steering group was created to implement a 25-point plan for the town.

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. 

The town centre management team has been receiving data from a new electronic pedestrian counter installed on Hope Street.

Businesses 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  processes the data and send a sales report to each business, with individual performance and an overall view of sales and footfall in Wrexham.

A Wrexham Council spokesman said: “The team now hopes 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.”