Thatcham footfall figures trigger investment call

Town's economic performance under spotlight

More calls for investment in Thatcham town centre have been made after a report has revealed the decline in the number of people visiting the town.

The figures, published in a recent West Berkshire Council performance report, show that between April and June 2014 an average 5,490 people a day visited Thatcham town centre.

This is 240 fewer than the 5,730 that visited between April and June 2011.

Footfall – which measures the number of pedestrians in a certain area and helps indicate the economic performance of town centres – has risen and fallen in Thatcham in recent years.

The number of people recorded visiting the town rose to 5,890 between April and June 2012, but fell to 5,400 during the same period the following year.

Thatcham fared slightly better than Hungerford, which has seen its average number of daily visitors drop from 4,950 between April and June 2011 to 4,390 between April and June 2014.

In contrast, Newbury’s footfall has risen considerably in recent years.

The chairman of Thatcham Chamber of Commerce, Jeremy Cottam, said that the figures made sense, as they reflected general activity in the area and that the economy was not yet in full recovery.

He asked West Berkshire Council to turn their time, power and resources into investing in towns in the district owing to Newbury’s success.

“Most of Newbury’s stellar success is due to it being the primary shopping centre, but perhaps also the district council’s focus need not be so skewed in their direction,” Mr Cottam said.

He added that more could be spent on public infrastructure in smaller centres to help them thrive and hightlighted that funding had been withdrawn from Thatcham’s public toilets but not Newbury’s.

Mr Cottam said that one of Thatcham’s strengths was “the beautiful village feel” to the Broadway and any plans would need to enhance this aspect.

“It’s no good going bang here’s a few other shops. The biggest mistake would be to turn their back on the Broadway.”

He said Thatcham’s town centre was a “great local source of employment, wealth and opportunity” with its own Keep it Local campaign urging shoppers to use or lose local shops.

Mr Cottam added that while new restaurants had opened in the town centre there needed to be more than just food outlets otherwise the town would die during day.

Earlier this year, West Berkshire Council announced it would be looking to regenerate the Broadway and High Street, working with planning consultants Turley Associates on a design refresh.

West Berkshire councillor for planning, regeneration and economic development, Alan Law (Con, Basildon) said that Thatcham and Hungerford faced the challenge of having to “enhance the overall town centre experience and not simply focus on traditional retail”.

Mr Law said that Newbury, which he described as a “21st- century market town”, was a typical example of an evolving town centre owing to Parkway, new restaurants and cafés.

The footfall figures are calculated by counting the number of people visiting over one particular week and dividing it by seven to get a daily average.