Maidenhead achieves best July footfall in five years, meeting hears

Maidenhead town centre experienced its busiest July for five years with more than one million visits recorded throughout the month.

Town manager Robyn Bunyan gave an update to councillors and residents on the health of the high street during the Maidenhead Town Forum last night.

With the summer months usually the busiest for the town centre, Ms Bunyan revealed that there had been 1,201,380 visits to Maidenhead in July this year.

“This is the best footfall we’ve had in July in the last five years, and we continue to perform strongly, versus various other years,” she added. 

Figures show that footfall in the town centre went up by 10 per cent, compared to July last year. 

Monthly footfall has been ‘growing strongly’ this year, she explained. 

Overall footfall figures have consistently been back at pre-pandemic levels, with 38,600 visits recorded each day in July. 

Ms Bunyan revealed that office lettings in the town centre in the last financial year achieved a total rent of £2,246,705.

It was previously announced that US tool company Stanley Black & Decker and US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson will be moving into the Tempo (former Three) building once it is complete. 

“I’m very happy that those large-scale businesses are moving around and choosing to put their roots down in Maidenhead,” Ms Bunyan added. 

Revealing the vacancy rates in the town centre, Ms Bunyan noted that of the 290 units available to rent in Maidenhead, 259 are currently let.

This means there are only 31 units currently available to let. 

“Our average vacancy rate is 10.6 per cent in Maidenhead. That puts us at the Greater London rate, which is fantastic.

“There’s not very much availability on the High Street, on Queen Street [and] Waterside Quarter is fully let now so our vacancy rate has held strong for quite a few months. 

“We’ve had a really, really good start to the year and we are only going to see that improve,” Ms Bunyan added. 

During her presentation, Ms Bunyan outlined an array of upcoming events taking place in Maidenhead. 

This includes the Maidenhead Waterways Fun Day, The Gravity Grand Prix, Norden Farm Night Market, the Maidenhead Coffee Festival and the Cookham & Maidenhead Arts Trail, all taking place this month. 

The upcoming autumn and winter programme features Pumpkin Carving, A Hoppy Place’s Oktoberfest, FiFest: Fireworks, the Maidenhead Town Show, the Norden Farm Lantern Making and Lantern Parade and the St Luke’s Christmas Tree Festival. 

She also divulged plans of a festive market, funfair and weather-dependent fireworks for the hugely popular Maidenhead Christmas Lights Switch-On. 

The annual Maidenhead Town Show will be taking over the High Street and the Nicholsons Shopping Centre on Sunday, October 13. 

The popular event will take place between 10am and 5pm and will be opened by Maidenhead MP Josh Reynolds. 

Jonny Walker will be MC’ing on a roving mic and there will be plenty of competitions and live music and entertainment including ukelele and Morris dancers. 

Workshops and family activities are also planned and currently more than 30 craft stalls, six food and drink stalls and six community stalls are set to feature. 

A petting zoo and children’s rides will keep visitors entertained and there will be 23 craft competition categories. 

Showgoers can get involved in the big raffle, with proceeds going to Thames Valley Adventure Playground (TVAP) in Taplow, and the popular dog show will also return, with a new junior handler category. 

For more information about the Town Show visit: www.maidenheadshow.co.uk