BUSINESSES in Mold are set to use 'SMART' technology to boost footfall.

The ‘Year of SMART towns’ is a Welsh Government funded project that aims to enable businesses to plan projects which lead to economic growth as well as helping them make the best use of digital technology.

This includes utilising data to help firms better understand their customer base and trends which will support businesses in their future planning and marketing activities.

One of the towns that has taken advantage of this project is Mold.

It came about after members of the trading community attended Menter Môn’s ‘Year of SMART Towns’ workshops. These workshops are used to introduce the concept, help participants prioritise suitable challenges, and identify potential SMART solutions within an action plan.

Richard Howells, owner of The Olive Tree, said: “If we had town-wide data we would be really interested to know how long people are spending in our shop in terms of time.

"Which car parks are busiest and therefore where the footfall is going to follow past the shop so it has huge applications for a business like ours.”

A smart town is an urban area that uses different types of technologies that can provide valuable data for towns to enable them to make better data-driven decisions.

Insights gained can be used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in return, the data is used to improve the operations and future prosperity across the town.

Joanna Douglass, business and regeneration officer Mold Town Council, said: “We are getting people and businesses within the town to see how it will work for them.

"How important this technology is and the data they can get out of it, and how they can use this within their business.”

The SMART Action Plan was used to support a successful funding bid from Flintshire County Council to deploy digital infrastructure in six towns to support town regeneration.

Niall Waller, enterprise and regeneration Manager at Flintshire County Council, added: “Flintshire Council is really excited to be part of the Year of SMART Towns initiative.

"Mold for us, is going to be the first of the towns on that journey. We’re really keen to roll that out to the other towns and we’ve just been successful in securing Welsh Government funding for the equipment to do that.”