It emerged a few weeks ago that most of the “footfall” cameras in York City centre are not working correctly.

The data from the cameras is used to help plan economic regeneration activities in the City centre.

The cameras do not currently provide any intelligence on who those users are, how they are using the space, or how much they are spending.

The cameras are located in

• Stonegate
• Coney Street
• Parliament Street
• Micklegate
• Church Street

A new Council report says, “Footfall counts are provided under contract through a network of cameras at five points across the City Centre in a long-standing contractual arrangement with the data intelligence service provider, Springboard. The company uses its bespoke software to analyse camera data and count people passing those locations. Most of these cameras are not functioning for a number of reasons, meaning loss of consistency in data provision”.

Some of the cameras have not been functioning mostly as a result of interruption to power supply.

Critically two of the most important cameras (those in Coney Street and Stonegate) have not been working since last summer. The Church Street camera hasn’t been operational since June 2017.

The camera on Parliament Street is located at a point where data is compromised when last events like fairs are staged in the area.

In effect, the Council and local traders have no idea how many people visited the City during the important Christmas period in comparison to previous years.

Extrapolation of other data suggested that footfall may have been down by as much as 10% compared to the previous year. Clearly though there were some days when some streets in  the City centre had reached their effective capacity.

The report says “Anecdotally, we are aware that some City Centre businesses use these figures as a guide to buying stock and hiring additional staff, so there is an additional knock on effect at a commercial level”.

A meeting next week is being advised to extend the current contract for another 12 moths while looking at other options.  The City will investigate what is done in other City’s with Bath being evidenced.

The report fails to identify how much the cameras are costing the Council or what the cost of the contract extension will be.

It seems surprising that most of the cameras could be out of service for 9 months without the issue being recognised and remedial action being taken by the Council.