High Street works see drop in Arcade footfall

The group’s footfall counters showed a drop of 89% heading from the High Street into the Arcade compared with the previous week and 92% heading the other way.

Meanwhile, footfall from the market to the Arcade – further away from the electricity work – fell by 4%.

A GRG spokesman said it suspected the footfall counters at the junction with the High Street were being obscured by the Heras fencing erected during the work.

Every other part of Town saw an increase in footfall compared with the previous week.

But even though the drop in the Arcade may not have been as high as 90%, many businesses said they had noticed a reduction in business and passers-by.

The Bean Jar cafe opened in December, but owner Sofi Noakes said if she had known about the impending roadworks she might have thought twice about it.

‘If people aren’t coming into the shop, how do I pay over £5,000 rent every quarter?’ she said.

Even the visit of the biggest cruise ship this year did not see the sort of business she would usually get.

‘I really should have done better because of where we are.’

She thought the timing of the work could have been better.

‘We know that tourism brings a lot to the island and we should be organised around these months and be responsible to our businesses.’

Guernsey Electricity has previously apologised for disruption caused by the work, which aims to improve resilience and increase the overall capacity of the low-voltage network. It started on 8 April and businesses were told it was expected to take six to eight weeks in the High Street and Arcade before a further eight to 10 weeks in the High Street.

Sole Mates manager Sam Downes had noticed a lot less footfall outside the shop.

‘We were notified of the work by email but they’d already started,’ he said.

‘I did have a gentleman from Guernsey Electricity come in and say “Sorry for the inconvenience”.’

However, he said the shop did good business from Thursday’s cruise ship, and expected trade would be good during the next school holidays.

Ellie Schreibke started as a shop assistant at Maison Demain, but will be taking over the business at the end of the month and yesterday was her first day back after some time off. ‘I’ve just looked at our sales figures and there’s a huge drop,’ she said.

Even with shoppers from the cruise ship business had not been as good as usual and she had noticed the reduced footfall.

‘Just looking out of the window there were always people walking past and looking in and Friday would usually be the weekday with the most sales.

‘It’s a bit hard to watch, actually.’

Trade at jewellers Martin & Martin had not been badly hit, said manager Emma Pang, although she had noticed a reduction in the number of passers-by.

But she thought there was more to blame than just the work in the High Street.

‘I also think it’s due to roadworks along the seafront and there have been parking restrictions for the cruise ships and the marathon.’

Like all the shops, she said they loved to see visitors from cruise ships and the recent one had led to them being busy.

A fall in trade since Christmas had been noticed by Carousel owner Mary Backlund.

The best day she had had recently was on Thursday. ‘It wasn’t so much the cruise ship, I just had better sales,’ she said.

‘But on the whole footfall has been very poor.’