Springboard has been awarded a three year contract to provide electronic people counting services throughout Wakefield District.

Cameras have been installed in Wakefield, Castleford and Pontefract which count customer activity in each town centre continuously, 24 hours a day. Springboard has exclusive rights to Protrax counting technology, developed by Scryon, which has its origins in defense and security tracking. Protrax can not only monitor activity in all types of weather and light conditions, but can also track customers around high streets as they shop.

Andrew Spittlehouse, Project Manager at Wakefield MDC says that "We are delighted that we are finally able to accurately monitor customer activity in our towns. Not only is the information of help to our Town Centre Managers in measuring the success of various initiatives, but it is also an important element of the Annual Progress Report of the Local Transport Plan."

The Council and each Town Centre Manager can access count information through the internet via www.spring-board.info. Comparisons can be made between towns, between days and between hours of the day, and information is presented as graphs and text while there is also a database facility for indepth analysis.

Diane Wehrle, Marketing Director of Springboard says that "We are confident that the move to electronic pedestrian counting in Wakefield will bring huge benefits to the Council and to its Town Centre Managers. Provision of electronic data will provide an accurate and consistent measure of this key performance indicator, which to date has only been available through ad-hoc manual counts. It will enable the effect of its transport policy and town centre management initiatives to be properly assessed over the long term, and so ensure the appropriate allocation of resources."