Macclesfield was one of few towns in Cheshire East which has seen an increase in footfall in the last year.

Macclesfield joined just four nearby towns in seeing more people on our high streets.

Crewe, Alsager and Nantwich also saw increases, with Macclesfield having the third highest increase in pedestrian traffic on our high street, with a 4% rise in footfall.

This is despite COVID-19, and indeed the Omicron wave of Winter 2021/22.

Despite empty shops, or big chains leaving the town, footfall in Macclesfield actually increased last year. (Image - Alexander Greensmith / Macclesfield Nub News)

The news was confirmed at a Cheshire East Council meeting earlier this week.

Crewe had the biggest increase in footfall, with a 36% rise.

Macclesfield's neighbouring town Congleton saw a decrease of 13%, the second highest drop in footfall in Cheshire East.

Macclesfield Town Council have been contacted for comment.

Footfall was 1.371 million in Macclesgfield for 2021-22. (Image - Cheshire East Council)

Cheshire East Council's Peter Skates, who is their Director of Growth and Enterprise, said the council had been monitoring the data in all nine service centres as well as Crewe and Macclesfield since lockdown.

"It is clear that a lot of the towns have responded differently," said Mr Skates.

"Towns like Middlewich actually saw an increase in footfall during the restrictions, and we considered that was probably likely because there was less travel to Crewe and Northwich from that local centre.

"It is quite enlightening the amount of quality information you can get from this mobile data."

Macclesfield: The figures have gone up from the 2020-21 boom of online shopping in lockdown. Do you think more people have used our high street in the last year? (Image - Alexander Greensmith / Macclesfield Nub News)

He said he was satisfied the figures were accurate.

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