Canal Corridor North
Lancaster City Centre Visitors Survey: January 2006

On behalf of Centros, Halogen organised a survey of visitors to Lancaster city centre over three days, from 10.00am to 4.00pm Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st January 2006. Based close to two stalls (branded Canal Corridor North) located initially in Market Street but then later (due to inclement weather) at the Cheapside entrance of St Nicholas Arcades, four interviewers approached members of the public asking them to participate in the survey. Willing interviewees were then asked a series of questions about their visit and their views about the city and its needs.

Altogether 608 members of the public were interviewed.

A summary of their responses is as follows:

• 85% of people are frequent visitors to the city centre, visiting weekly or more often (with 41.3% being daily visitors).
  
• The main reason given for visiting the city centre was for non-food shopping, with leisure, business and food shopping being other main reasons for visits.
  
• The most popular modes of travel to the city centre were by foot and by car. Buses were the next most common mode of transport.
  
• 69.9% of those interviewed also said they visited the city centre in the evenings, with 27% being regular evening visitors.
  
• 59.2% said that they also regularly visited other locations for shopping, with 24.5% visiting Preston and 16.3% visiting Manchester (including the Trafford centre).
  
• 71.7% said that Lancaster needed a more extensive range of shops in the city centre.
  
• When asked what, if anything, was missing from Lancaster city centre, 26.6% said “a department store”. The other, most common suggestions were “more shopping choice” and “more variety”.
  
• 47.5% of people were aware of the proposed development of the Canal Corridor North site. (Afterwards, interviewees were given a leaflet explaining the survey, identifying the Canal Corridor North site and providing information on how to findout more and contribute further in the consultation process.)

When asked about the types of uses that should be included in the development, people suggested the following (NB this was a multiple choice question and the following percentages are of the whole sample of 608):

• Leisure/cultural quarter: 54.1%
• Shopping: 46.1%
• Open space: 25.5%
• Housing: 19.2%
• Parking: 18.9%
• Small workshops/industrial units: 8.2%
• Offices: 4.9%

69% of those interviewed lived in the LA1 postcode area and a further 16.4% lived in postcode areas LA2, LA3 and LA4. The sample covered all age groups, though a higher than representative proportion of 16-24 year olds were included (possibly because higher numbers of young people were visiting the city centre, or there was a reluctance of those in the older age groups to be interviewed). 53.1% of interviewees were male and 46.9% female.