ABC Council is to adopt an ‘if you want a job done do it yourself’ approach to counting Christmas visitors in future amid claims figures provided from an external organisation did not paint an accurate picture.
Numbers attending Christmas light switch-ons and other festive favourites in the vast majority of areas in the borough were reported to be down in 2025 compared to the previous year.
The only areas where there had been an increase recorded was in Banbridge and Rathfriland, but in 2024 it was reported these had been impacted by weather.
The information did not sit well with councillors who questioned how accurate the numbers really were.
For instance, in totals rounded to the nearest 100, attendance in Portadown was reportedly down from 3,000 to 2,000, in Lurgan, from 3,000 to 2,500 and Dromore, from 1,500 to 1,200.
Smaller towns also witnessed a decrease, according to a report to ABC Council’s economic development and regeneration committee.
Markethill fell from 800 in 2024 to just 300 in 2025, while there were reported drops in numbers in Keady, from 600 to 350, Tandragee, from 1,200 to just 450, and Richhill, from 400 to 250.
It was Alderman Paul Greenfield who first flagged concerns.
Asking if a different method of recording was now employed, he observed: “The figures from 2024 to 2025 are well down right across the borough in a lot of places.
“Certainly, the Banbridge one was slightly different because of the weather, and it was up, but there does seem to be a massive drop off. I know we made quite a big change to our Christmas events and I think they’re working well when you’re at them, but I wouldn’t want to see it continue to reduce in such numbers if I’m reading that right.
“Some of them are down by a thousand people, some 1,500 people, some 300 in the smaller ones. Apart from the ones that were impacted by weather, I just wondered is there anything we need to look at there?”
Paul Tamati, director of development and community and wellbeing, confirmed that the figures were furnished through an “external provider”.
“We did notice that the stats were down,” he said, then adding: “The robustness of those figures is something that we have challenged with them, in terms of that, because it felt a whole lot better, and more attendance at those sorts of things this year than compared to 2024.”
The director said officers had sought clarification in terms of how numbers are counted.
He believed some were based on “assumptions” and if carried out by different people at different events it could perhaps “skew the figures”.
“We did note that they do look down, albeit it felt like there was more at this Christmas events than there was the previous,” he added.
Councillor Kyle Savage also said he was “trying to find the reason” for why numbers appeared to have dropped, suggesting it might have been down to the inclusion of artisan and Twilight markets.
And he added: “I do think going forward, it is important that we do involve the local community, school choirs, and I think that’s going to be very, very important to help build the Christmas up again. I know that right throughout, be it in our towns, or be it our villages, it is a time of year that our council does perform well.”
Looking ahead, director Paul Tamati confirmed plans for something “more robust”, advising councillors “we’ll probably put something in place for ourselves, that we can have a bit more reliability on going forward”.
Independent Unionist Alderman Paul Berry was stunned by the figures in relation to Tandragee, a reported decline from 1,200 to 450.
“There was 400 selection boxes given out, and there was only 450 people appeared?,” he remarked. “So there’s quite a number of parents gone missing somewhere for those children.”
Alderman Berry added: “I had asked the vendors at the end of the evening how they actually did business wise, because it’s always good to find out, and they had said, no different than last year. We had a very good year. So there was nothing there to indicate. If you’d come back and said a thousand people, OK that would be fair, because it was earlier in November we had it, rather than the beginning of December, just the way it worked out, but certainty there was more than 450 people there.
“I think that’s something that would need to go back to them, just to question that and get that right. I don’t think there was a ticker at the gate this time.”
Mr Tamati said they had gone back to the external provider who “felt happy to stand over those figures”.
“Hence going forward,” he said, “we’re going to do our own, in terms of how we can measure attendance at these events, and have something a wee bit more robust. There is different ways to do that, and so we think if we can manage that in-house going forward then we could probably stand over them.”
Also in terms of planning, SDLP Councillor Thomas O’Hanlon felt earlier organisation would be beneficial.
“In relation to the numbers for Keady, yes, the numbers were down,” he said. “But it’s because one of the local primary schools had a show on with 600 people at it. That’s what happened I think.”
Councillor O’Hanlon said the director referred to plans to hold a workshop before the summer break and added: “I think it would be useful if we can pin down the dates for 2026 early on to try and avoid any clashes of dates.”
