Wagga City Council's City Centre Survey asked almost 800 people how they would improve the city

Almost 800 people participated in the survey, held during September and October last year, which asked the community for feedback on the city's main business hub of Baylis and Fitzmaurice streets.

The council's director of regional activation, Michael Keys, said the findings will help council identify ways to improve the city in the future.

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"The best part is people really enjoy the city centre and all the services and the activities and the businesses that are on offer," he said.

"We rate very highly compared to other regional centres right across Australia, as well as metropolitan centres, and there is plenty of opportunity to improve on that."

Mr Keys said that people wanted to see more activity and "more life" in the city centre, especially at night.

He said alfresco dining would be a key part of "activating the streets".

Unsurprisingly, parking was one area that residents want improved and Mr Keys said this is something that council will look at going forward.

"A city that's growing like Wagga ... will mean that we need more centralised parking," he said. "We could look at multi-deck car parks, specific spots so that people can park in one location and go to all their different services and just park once."

That will be music to the ears of Brad Blackburn, owner of Cotmakers on Baylis Street, who said that he wants to see better parking solutions to improve foot traffic along his block.

"People drive on and park in Kmart car park and don't shop in the street, they don't come back out, they don't see half the shops that are here," he said.

He also wants to see better maintenance of the footpath in places where the trees have lifted the pavers and areas where the drains clog and flooding occurs, like outside of his front door.

"They need to come along the whole street and assess it and work out what needs fixing," he said.

Lucy Roche, from Adelong, comes to Wagga once a week to shop, and she said that parts of the main street are "a bit depressing".

"There's shops that are all empty," she said.

Wagga Business Chamber business manager Serena Hardwick said Wagga actually has one of the lowest rates of empty shopfronts of any regional city, and she would also like to see more done to improve outdoor dining in the city.

"The extension of alfresco dining is definitely something we would like to see more of and we definitely have the footpath capacity for it," she said.

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