How much are people still going out in this lockdown?
Stay Home Save Lives advert at an Ipswich bus stop. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN - Credit: Archant
Data shows that fewer people are out and about in Suffolk during the current lockdown - less than there were during the previous two.
Footfall figures from Ipswich Borough Council (IBC) show that fewer people have been seen in the town centre compared to the first lockdown.
On Saturday January 9, 3,372 people were seen in Ipswich town centre.
This is fewer than the 3,531 seen on Saturday April 18, while the UK was under the first lockdown, and the 5,419 seen on Saturday November 21, 2020, during the second lockdown.
Data from Google shows that visits to shops and hospitality venues is down 69%, compared to 58% in May during the first lockdown.
The data also suggests essential trips, to supermarkets and pharmacies, are down 28% during this lockdown. They were only down 13% in the original lockdown.
Despite this there is light at the end of the tunnel for businesses in smaller urban centres according to Valentine Quinio, a researcher at the Centre for Cities.
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She said: “In smaller cities people are able to drive to work which makes them feel safer, and so they have the confidence to travel into city centres which they might not otherwise."
