Burnley town centre had more than eight million visitors last year

The figures, released by the Burnley and Disrict Chamber of Trade, revealed that there were 8,247,331 visitors to the town centre last year, an average of 22,595 people a day.

Burnley Town Centre manager Catherine Price reported the figures to the chamber's latest meeting, which showed that footfall had stayed pretty consistent with the previous year and had increased in the summer months.

A number of events, particularly around the Christmas period, had helped to push footfall up even further.

Catherine said: "Burnley Literary Festival attracted a 5% increase in footfall across the four days it was held and had more than 2,250 visitors, double the amount taking part in 2017.

"The event was funded by Arts Council England and received a lot of financial aid and in-kind support from town centre organisations including the venues Burnley Central Library, Tesco Burnley and Stocks Massey funding."

Meanwhile, Burnley’s Christmas Party on November 17th, a joint event between Town Centre Management, Charter Walk and Burnley Markets which included an ice sculpture trail, fairy and elf workshops, Burnley Market's street market, music, dance performances and a firework display brought a huge 16.3% increase in footfall to the town centre.

Burnley Light Night on December 8th went down very well and had around 400 people taking part in the parade through the town centre.

The community workshops in the town centre before the event were very popular and in some cases oversubscribed.

The event received Arts Council England funding and was a joint affair between Town Centre Management, Burnley Leisure and Burnley Central Library.