New technology is to be installed in Armagh and other ‘urban centres’ in the borough which will count the number of shoppers and visitors.
The ‘footfall counters’ are to be upgraded and installed thanks to the Department for Communities.
It has agreed to provide funding of up to £85,000 as part of the Covid-19 recovery revitalisation programme.
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council intends to use the information gained as a result in a number of ways.
Details of the ‘footfall monitoring’ scheme for urban centres – which also includes Portadown, Craigavon, Lurgan, Banbridge and Dromore – were given to council’s economic development committee.
The system enable “important data and information to be captured”.
It will help with the “detection of early warning signs of change in our towns and city centre” and provide “baseline data to track performance”.
The committee was also informed it would see the “provision of an objective measure of attractiveness to customers” and allow for the “evaluation of the success of marketing, promotion and events”.
At the same time, it will allow council to identity “the contribution of capital improvements”.
And committee has been told it will prove most useful when it is able to use the system to “provide data required by inward investors”.
It will also be effective in “milestones and comparisons against other town centres and regions”.
Given an update on the future plans, councillors have been told that “procurement is currently underway to appoint a supplier”.
