Rising visitor numbers for high streets

Soaring numbers of shoppers are flocking to high streets in Staffordshire, town centre bosses said today.

Cannock's town centre chief has revealed numbers visiting the town centre is up nearly eight per cent on last year.

Natal Chapman, who runs Cannock Shopping Centre, says there were 7.9 per cent more people doing their shopping there this January, compared to the same period in 2011. Last month, Mrs Chapman counted 394,463 people making their way into the shopping centre, compared to 365,533 in January 2011.

Mrs Chapman said she was delighted when she noticed the marked increase.

She said: "From our point of view that's the way it should be, it increases the effect of people coming into the shopping centre.

"It's great to be getting so many people through the doors."

But despite the positive figures, Mrs Chapman says early figures show that actual spending in the town is down by just under two per cent for the same periods.

George Demetriou, centre manager at Stafford's Guildhall Shopping Centre, said it is a similar story there, with visitors up by around four per cent on last year.

The news comes only days after the Express & Star revealed high streets in Staffordshire are out-performing town centres in the Black Country, which top a national list with more than one in four shops vacant. In Cannock and Stafford, the vacancy rate is about 12 per cent. The West Midlands average is 16 per cent, according to the Local Data Company.

Natal Chapman, Cannock Chase Shopping Centre manager, said out of 38 units, one is currently empty.

Nationally, one in seven shops stood empty in 2011 with further closures expected this year.