Huge fall in the number of people visiting Loughborough town centre

Nearly 400,000 fewer people made the trip in January 2021 than in January 2020.

Love Loughborough Bid told Fosse107 around 160,000 people visited in the first month of this year, with national lockdown rules being in place for all but 4 days in January. This is down from 554,000 visits last year, two months before the first lockdown was put in place.

The drop-off is also evident in the number of daily visitors Loughborough receives. Back in the first month of 2020, an average of 18,500 people each day were recorded as visiting the town centre. After nearly a year of the pandemic, this figure stands at just 5,000 a day.

Manager of Love Loughborough Bid, Lisa Brown, said they hadn't yet seen an impact in the number of shops on the high street.

"Our vacancy rate has actually improved since last January but we won't be able to tell which of the smaller shops will have to close until they're allowed to reopen.

"Their living off their grants at the moment."