RETAILERS today demanded action to reverse the drop in the number of people in Glasgow's Style Mile.

Their call came as figures from Glasgow City Council showed the number of people visiting the city's main shopping areas – known as footfall – fell more than 8% in the second half of last year.

Traders want council bosses to free up parking and crack down on anti-social behaviour as they compete with the internet and out-of-town malls amid flat overall retail sales.

A spokesman for the newly formed City Centre Retailers' Association, said: "Decreasing numbers of shoppers is the reason we formed. So these figures underpin the decision of Glasgow's retailers to get together to work on a solution."

Retailers have already agreed to open late starting October in the hope they can attract reluctant shoppers into the city in the all-important run-up to Christmas.

The spokesman added: "It won't be fixed overnight. But our aim is to tackle the things we can change and reduce the barriers that might put people off coming into the city centre, such as parking, opening hours, and anti-social behaviour.

"Glasgow city centre remains a unique part of the UK retail landscape and this group intends to make sure it is promoted as such and that footfall starts to rise accordingly."

Footfall is a crude measure of the number of people passing through the city centre at all times of day and night. It is measured using four counters at strategic locations in Sauchiehall Street, the top and middle of Buchanan Street and outside Debenhams on Argyle Street.

All four counters showed a 2% decline in December 2012 from the same month in 2011.

However, city council officials suspect one counter, near Buchanan Galleries, may be faulty and this may have exaggerated falling numbers.

Retail analyst CACI also revealed spending in Glasgow was now below £2billion a year at £1.94bn.

Glasgow City Council is spending £80million of public money to support the expansion of Buchanan Galleries.

The council insisted the Style Mile was outperforming rivals – but by citing spending figures from 2011 of £2.4bn, which is almost £500m more than the most recent estimate from CACI.

A council spokesman said: "The retail sector in Glasgow has proved remarkably resilient in the face of very challenging economic conditions over the past five years.

"Evidence for this comes in reports from CACI, Experian and Javelin all confirming Glasgow city centre continues to be the biggest shopping destination in the UK outside of London's West End.

"These reports show we are outperforming our competitor cities."

However, Green Party city centre councillor Nina Baker said: "The city must do something if the city centre is not to fade to a tatty patchwork of payday lenders, pubs and bookies, stitched together with pound shops."

david.leask@eveningtimes.co.uk