Data fresh in from Denbighshire paints a poor picture as regards footfall. It's up to the period end of June 2020 and data beyond that are not yet available.
Not surprisingly, Rhuthun/Ruthin town centre footfall in 2020 quarter two was down significantly. This was for the months April to June, during the teeth of the lockdown and just about before non-essential retail reopened (June 22nd).
Comparing 2020 Q2 with the average for Q2 in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and the slippage was –80 per cent. Only Llangollen was worse (–86 per cent). Prestatyn wasn't much better (–74 per cent). Y Rhyl fared better (–63 per cent) and Dinbych best (–49 per cent). The counter in Dinbych is directly by the Co-op there and this may have a baring.
A better indicator of town centre performance is car park revenue. Car parking charges restarted in August 2020. Figures for comparing August, September and October 2019 with 2020 are also now available. I think we all felt that Rhuthun did fairly well in terms of visitors but these data show that August was not so hot.Of course, Market Street was free for two hours (although visitors probably didn't realise they could move to Market Street for free).
In August, compared to other town centre car parks, both Rhuthun and Dinbych lost ground. Prestatyn's was halved. Llangollen's and Y Rhyl's were almost static. Notice, though, that coastal car parks did better in August. This reflects the number of people enjoying a so-called 'saycation'.
In September, Rhuthun's recovered fairly well but Dinbych did not. More people were used to the free parking at Market Street, of course, and this would affect revenue. Prestatyn stayed about the same. Llangollen and Rhyl town centres did better than the previous year. Prestatyn's seasonal coastal car parks also did better.
On the face of it, it's a disaster. But, actually, there was very little open in town: two chemists, one wholefood shop, a bank and the post office and, for a time, an ironmonger and a newsagent. All in all, there was little to go to town for. We were encouraged to exercise but once a day only and there was no prospect of anyone coming to town to visit.
September recovered quite a lot of lost ground. September tends to be relatively popular in Rhuthun. October was hit by the local health protection zone and the two week fire break lockdown.
