Hundreds to be surveyed about what they want from Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough and Rushden town centres

Research into the shopping and leisure habits of people in North Northamptonshire will help shape future planning policies and strategies for town centres.

North Northants Council (NNC) has commissioned specialist consultants Nexus Planning to carry out a retail capacity update, a study that will give a better understanding of how and where people like to shop, spend their leisure time and use their town centres.

As part of the study there will be a telephone survey which will involve about 1,300 households in the area over the coming weeks.

The survey should take six or seven minutes to complete and will be conducted by NEMS Market Research.

Most approaches will be made outside normal working hours to make sure working households can take part.

Cllr David Brackenbury, NNC’s executive member for growth and regeneration, said: “Producing strategic planning policies is essential, in fact it’s a statutory requirement for the council to do so and it’s vital we have the most up-to-date information possible to help inform this process and ensure town centres are supported to adapt and respond to changing trends in shopping, leisure and living, as well as helping them to level up and recover strongly from the pandemic.

“Understanding how people spend their leisure time and how they like to shop will play a part of this so that future plans can be based on up-to-date, robust and reliable evidence.”

Council leader Jason Smithers said: “In developing planning policies and strategies for town centres in North Northants we need current information and the best way of getting this is to ask people directly.

"While we would like all North Northants residents that are approached as part of the household survey to feel comfortable to respond, clearly they are under no obligation to do so, and we would like them to inform us if they have any concerns at all.”

No personal information will be collected other than age and gender.

Any information provided will be used in statistical form only, so it will not be possible for people to be identified from their answers.

If anyone who receives a call has concerns at any point, they should hang up and report it to [email protected].