The following analysis contains data for the devices at Westdaw, S.C. Fuller, Dorking Sports Centre, and Calliope.
- At the start of February, a handful of Covid-19 cases were appearing in the UK, however this is unlikely to have affected footfall in a considerable way since there were no guidelines for shoppers to stay at home or for retailers to close any shops at this point.
- Despite this, footfall still fell throughout February with a 5% week-on-week decline in footfall across all devices in week 7 being the most dramatic change from one week to the next.
Key Retail Metrics – Persistent vacancy rates
- Persistent vacancy rate quantifies how many units in a location have been vacant for a long period of time and are not likely to be occupied again, with high levels of longterm vacancies being a sign of a struggling high street.
- The figure above shows that Dorking has a low level of vacancy for units that have been vacant for less than 1 year with 3.5%, compared to 4.5% and 4.6% for the South East and GB Averages respectively. This shows that when a business closes in Dorking, it is then reoccupied relatively quickly compared to the regional and national averages.
- 5.9% of units in Dorking have been vacant for between 1 and 2 years which is higher than the South East and GB averages, however this is not a cause for alarm as units that have been vacant for this length of time are often reoccupied.
- For units that have been vacant between 2 and 3 years, Dorking performs well with only 0.3% of the total retail and leisure stock falling into this category.
- Dorking performs similarly to the South East average regarding units that are vacant for longer than 3 years with only 3% of all units remaining unoccupied for this long. This is also better than the GB average of 4% showing that units in Dorking do not remain vacant for long periods of time.
Overall footfall volume
- The figure above shows the weekly footfall throughout the month of February for the active footfall devices.
- As there were no lockdown restrictions in place, footfall in these locations appears relatively stable compared to the months that followed.
- As a total across the 4 devices, the total volume of footfall declined slightly from the start of February to the end.
Week-on-week change in footfall
- The figure above shows the week-on-week changes in footfall across the active devices in Dorking.
- Across the device totals, the greatest week-on-week change was seen in week 7 where the average footfall fell by 5%, with the devices at Westdaw and S.C. Fuller seeing the largest decline in footfall during this week with declines of 7.1% and 14% respectively.
