Melton town centre footfall up by more than 300,000 last year

The number of people visiting Melton town centre increased by more than 300,000 last year, compared to 2021, but footfall is still below what it was before the Covid pandemic.

Latest statistics show that more local people are shopping in the town – a trend identified following the lockdowns - but this has been offset by fewer tourists and people visiting from other parts of the country.

A recent BBC report indicated that Melton Mowbray recorded the sixth highest rise in activity in the town centre in the whole of the UK from Tuesday to Thursday – which has been called ‘the new working week’ because of many more people working from home – but these figures are thought to have been skewed locally by the town’s Tuesday market day being traditionally by far its biggest footfall day of the week.

Melton BID manager Shelagh Core told the Melton Times: “We are seeing a gradual increase year-on-year post-Covid but we are yet to reach the pre-Covid footfall stats.

“This is in part as pre-Covid, most of our footfall April to September was predominantly tourists and visitors, compared to local visitors and residents.

“Positively, we did however see a footfall shift during the pandemic of an increase in local visitors and residents, which has continued to remain higher than tourists and visitors post-pandemic as we saw a shift to local shopping, heightened by the travel restrictions during the pandemic.

“Whilst visitor and tourist numbers are now on the increase again year-on-year, local and repeat visitors remain highest.”

Footfall figures for Melton for 2018 totalled 2,299,763, rising to 2,396,212 the following year.

The onset of the pandemic saw visitor numbers drop to 1,303,327 in 2020, rallying to 1,590,260 the year after as restrictions were eased and then increasing again last year to 1,911,310.

Referring to the BBC report on Melton’s Monday to Thursday stats, Shelagh added: “Footfall is also influenced by events throughout the year, so it is difficult to say that this is purely because of a Tuesday to Thursday working week.

“Hybrid working has also had an impact on footfall generally in the town, with the closure and relocation of some office space over the last two years and diversifying of town centre unit use.”