So where is York heading post COVID

There are signs of life in some organisations in the City as they begin to address the harsh post COVID realities.

The Council has issued business recovery kits which may aid social distancing particularity in shops.

The move comes on the day when the Centre for City’s releases details of how the health crisis has impacted on visitor numbers to the City centre. Not surprisingly the profile has changed radically with those travelling from the suburbs (both as shoppers and workers) now in the majority.

This will come as no surprise as foreign tourist numbers are, and are likely to remain, negligible. The next three months will be crucial for many retail and tourist businesses in the City.

The City is middle ranking so far in how well is is recovering its high street “footfall” compared to other Cities. It has a recovery index of 24 compared to the least affected (Aldershot with a score of 57 and the worst Cardiff with 11).

But it is early days and a more general return to work next Monday will tell us more.

So what needs to be done?

Clearly York’s visitor economy is going to depend, at least in the short term, on people travelling to the City from within Yorkshire. They will need to feel safe if they are to be persuaded to come.

It is vitally important therefore that such large spaces as exist in the City centre are fully utilised.

We understated that there are events planned for Parliament Street but it is less clear what use it will be made of assets like the Museum Gardens, Deans Park and the Nave of the Minster. Indeed, imaginative programming at the Minster – which could safely accommodate over a thousand people during periods of poor weather – may be vitally important in any marketing strategy.

All could potentially accommodate Arts events while maintaining social distancing rules.

York Minster and Duncombe Place, York
Duncombe Place

The Council has already listed streets which will be pedestrianised.

Incredibly it failed to include Deangate, one of the widest streets in the City and which could – together with the Minster and Deans Park- provide an ideal events space. Events held there would complement those planned for the other side of the City to the benefit traders and attractions in the Stonegate neighbourhood.

In the longer term better use will need to be made of the river banks and the City Walls but, for a few weeks at least, the City will need to concentrate on promoting itself as a vibrant, safe and welcoming destination.

It is time now for Make it York, the Council , the theatres, museums, libraries and other organisations to publish their short and medium term regeneration proposals?

So just how busy is the York City centre?

Footfall camera in Stonegate

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”.

More information is available in Bath

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.