NEW data has revealed how people’s movements in the county have changed during lockdown with visits to parks more than doubling since the start of the year.

Footfall data compiled by Google shows visitor numbers in the city and the rest of the county are still below what they were before lockdown with only visits to parks increasing.

Data for the whole of Worcestershire shows a huge 124 per cent increase in visitors to parks, public gardens and marinas with Worcester seeing a similar increase of 99 per cent.

Google’s latest ‘Covid-19 Community Mobility Report’ looks at data between July 19 and August 30 and compares it with figures for the start of the year.

The reports use data from people who have opted in to storing their location history with Google to help show the extent to which people are adhering to government instructions.

Figures for the rest of the county show a drop of five per cent for people visiting restaurants, cafés, shopping centres, theme parks, museums, libraries and cinemas.

The same figures show a 13 per cent drop in visitors to supermarkets, food warehouses, farmers markets, speciality food shops and pharmacies.

Users of public transport was up by 13 per cent but people returning to offices and other places of work was down by four per cent.

The figures for Worcester follow a similar trend with visitors to parks increasing by 99 per cent. Users of public transport were down by a fifth and people returning to offices and other places of work had dropped by nine per compared to the average for January and February.

Despite the Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme attracting more diners to the city’s cafés, bars and restaurants throughout August, figures show a drop of 16 per cent on people eating out and visiting shopping centres, museums, libraries and cinemas.

Visitor numbers to supermarkets and pharmacies in Worcester also dropped by 15 per cent.

The figures are however in stark contrast to Google’s first report published in April when lockdown had just started and visitor numbers to the county’s shops and restaurants, supermarkets, train stations and offices plummeted.

Data showed huge drops with retail taking the biggest hit – down by a huge 86 per cent between mid-February and the end of March when the country went into full lockdown.

The county’s bus and train stations also saw a huge drop of 71 per cent over the same period.