Wedding boost for town centre

ANALYSTS say that Oldham bucked the national trend with an increase in town-centre visitors during the royal wedding.

Across the UK there was a 46.9 per cent drop compared with the previous year up until 2pm on the day that Price William and Kate Middleton tied the knot.

But Yorkshire Street was closed off for a street party and town centre manager Sara Hewitt said: “Here there were relatively high levels of footfall in parts of Oldham’s town centre and overall figures were up an impressive 36.2 per cent year on year.

“We closed off one of the main streets, home to our independent retailers and bars, and held a street party.

“This attracted a number of visitors and the retailers were pleased with the results they saw on the day.

“Generally, Oldham town centre is fairing well despite the economic climate. We have a low vacancy rate at around 17 per cent.

“One of the reasons we feel we have weathered the retail storm well is that we have three educational institutions in the town centre bringing students with disposable incomes to the high street.”

Springboard, which monitors footfall in UK towns and cities, saw an overall dip in April compared with last year.

Research director Diane Wehrle said: “If it wasn’t for the positive impact of both Easter and the royal wedding, the decline would have been much higher.

“Towns like Oldham, which saw the wedding as an opportunity to embrace the local high street, saw the immediate benefits with an increase of 36.2 per cent during the day.

“However, areas which don’t have a high concentration of leisure and catering outlets did not appear to feel the positive effects of the celebrations.”