Harrogate Borough Council’s claim that 120,000 visitors attended two jubilee events over the recent four-day weekend has been questioned.
To celebrate the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, the council and Harrogate Business Improvement District turned part of the Stray into Jubilee Square. The venue included a stage and big screens showing events such as the Queen’s birthday parade.
Valley Gardens hosted a free family festival, organised by the council, which featured jugglers, magicians, choirs and fairground rides. An artisan market was also held in the Sun Colonnade in the gardens.
The free rides in Valley Gardens were a hit with families.
Following the two events, the council’s tourism body Destination Harrogate issued a news release that said 120,000 visitors attended over the four days.
Whilst the events were clearly popular, the council’s figures suggest as many people attended them as the British Grand Prix, Leeds Festival or the Great Yorkshire Show.
How was the figure calculated?
The Stray Ferret asked the council how the figure of 120,000 was calculated.
At Valley Gardens, a system called PFM counted whenever someone entered, meaning one person could be counted multiple times.
A council spokesperson confirmed that “if people went between two sites then they could be counted twice”. They added:
“Of course, when it isn’t a ticketed event you can’t be 100 per cent but we believe over the four days there were more than 120,000 visits to both locations.”
The council’s method of counting visits means that a family of four would have been counted 8 times if they had begun the day at the Valley Gardens, gone to the Stray and returned to Valley Gardens later in the day.
Jubilee Square on the Sunday night.
If they did the same thing again the next day, the same family would have been counted another 8 times.
This suggests the true number of people that attended the events could be significantly lower than the “120,000 visitors” stated in the news release.
Read more:
- Mixed picture for Harrogate town centre as jubilee celebrations end
- How the Harrogate district celebrated the jubilee
‘Loose with the facts’
Harrogate district resident and transparency campaigner Alex Smith has queried the council’s use of statistics on previous occasions.
He has questioned its claim that three million people visit Valley Gardens a year and has also queried a comment by Conservative council leader Richard Cooper that 88% of Harrogate Convention Centre conference delegates return to the district for leisure.
Mr Smith accused the council of using “bogus” visitor numbers to trumpet its jubilee events and to justify spending on projects such as the proposed £47m redevelopment of the convention centre.
He added:
“Obviously this is an attempt at PR for their Destination Harrogate intentions.
“But with the future of of the town centre at stake we deserve better than a council playing fast and loose with the facts.”
Asked to respond to Mr Smith’s comments, the council spokesperson insisted its jubilee figure was accurate. They said:
“We use a system called PFM that records visitor numbers to Valley Gardens in Harrogate. This system recorded 120,258 visitors between Thursday 1 June and Sunday 4 June.
“As we knew visitors could – and would understandably want to – enjoy all the events taking place across Harrogate town centre, we used a rounded figure and phrase of ‘more than 120,000’.”
