FREMANTLE’s Business Improvement District group wants to ease people’s concerns over the decline in foot traffic in the city’s CBD (“Fewer feet on Freo beat,” Herald, May 23, 2015).

BID group member Darren Roberts wrote to the Herald saying it was unfair to take monthly foot traffic numbers from one street to make a broad statement about the local retail scene.

“A small snapshot from the data doesn’t really give a good indication of what’s going on,” Mr Roberts says.

“These sorts of statistics are often presented to tell a specific part of the story.

“We feel Fremantle is doing a little better than the stats show. This could be primarily related to changes and developments in Fremantle across the past 12-18 months.

“There has been significant increases in visitation in areas like the Bathers Beach precinct … and Saturday evening markets. Activities like these have found visitors using the city differently and currently there is no measurement in these locations.”

The street indicators—these are, body heat sensors—in Fremantle are only located at 52 South Terrace and 28 Adelaide, 55 Market and 93 High streets.

by EMMIE DOWLING