A Bury St Edmunds business leader has hailed the "thriving" town centre - with the number of vacant units set to reduce in the new year.
Mark Cordell, chief executive of Our Bury St Edmunds BID, said a West Suffolk Council independent audit report last month revealed that 8.5% (43) of the total units in the west Suffolk town were vacant, a slight increase on the 7% (35) recorded in October last year.
Since then though, he said Lisa Angel opened its store in Abbeygate Street and he is also aware of six more units which will have new tenants by early next year.
"Deduct seven from 43 and you are basically back to where we were a year ago, which is good news," Mr Cordell explained.
"Footfall is slightly down on last year (by 2%) but in the summer this was over 3%, so improving, but still better than the average for the East of England and small market towns across the UK."
"The BID contributes to this by working with the authorities to make the town as safe and clean as possible," he said.
"We also organise and deliver high quality events that bring additional people into the town, such as our Christmas Lights event last week
"Then we promote and market the town to both local people (living within a 30 mile radius), through the Our Bury St Edmunds brand and to tourists, with a specific focus upon the Midlands, South East and London (basically those living within a 2-3 hour car journey away) through the official tourism brand for the town, Bury St Edmunds and Beyond."
He said the average stay in the town is now three to four days and analysis indicates a person staying will spend, on average, £100 a day in the local economy.
Mr Cordell added: "I think we are seen as a very proactive and successful town by many others and two recent examples are Primark opening in March, followed by other prestige national brands, and the BID being approached to host Paddington on his bench in the arc."
Meanwhile, during a scrutiny committee meeting at Ipswich Borough Council on Thursday, leader Neil MacDonald spoke about Ipswich town centre and investment.
In a pre-committee report, it was seen that the town centre has seen a rise in the number of vacant shops and a footfall drop by a third as compared to the year prior.
Mr MacDonald, joined by director for operations and place James Fairclough, argued that the numbers may not be entirely accurate, and believed there is a much more positive picture coming for the town.
Mr Fairclough said: "These footfall statistics have been based on our previous calculations, which will pick up people only when they go past certain centres in town.
"But we have a more-tech-based solution that will count footfall through mobile phones and hence be more accurate in the future."
Mr MacDonald said there is work coming in the future to combat vacant shops, including prospective work being done to occupy the former Little Waitrose, plans for the former customer centre and getting new tenants to use empty units in the town hall.
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