Wantage Market Place Improvements

About the improvements

Our vision for Wantage Market Place is a vibrant, welcoming, and accessible space for everyone. It enhances the historical charm of the market town while addressing the challenges of climate change to make it sustainable for many years to come. 

Improving walking, wheeling, and public transport opportunities will make the space safer and healthier for all. 

Why we are investing here

In 2024, Wantage Town Council and Oxfordshire County Council committed to exploring ways to make the Market Place more accessible and safer for those with mobility issues. Our goal is to create a space where everyone feels comfortable, safe and enjoys spending time.

Officers from the county council have been working with the local community to investigate how to make the town centre a better place to spend time for shopping, leisure or business. Any improvements would complement the town's history and character but would also help to improve the look and feel of Wantage for residents and visitors alike.

Working with the community has shaped four key objectives for the Wantage Market Place Improvement Project: 

• Creating a Welcoming Space: Everyone should feel welcome and safe in Market Place. Making the area more accessible, and reducing the chances of conflict between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles will promote a greater sense of community where people can spend time and engage with each other.
• Enhancing the Environment: Adding more greenery increases biodiversity and reduces pollution as well providing shade and shelter. Making Market Place more accessible, would encourage more people to walk, wheel and cycle to the town centre.
• Improving Public Transport Access: Reducing town centre traffic jams would make travelling to and from Market Place quicker, easier and more reliable. This should be improved since the opening of the new King Alfred Way.
• Supporting Local Businesses and Economy: Creating a vibrant social space to host various community activities would boost the local economy by attracting residents and tourists to Market Place. Local groups could use the space for more seasonal events, markets, street trading, dining and festivals. 

Minimising the impact

As we have not approved a design option for construction, nor secured the necessary funding, the traffic management arrangements are yet to be confirmed. We will coordinate future work to minimise the impact on local businesses, visitors and residents. Further details of this will be available on our website and in local notices at a later stage, once construction is confirmed. 

Funding for the scheme

£500,000 of Oxfordshire County Council’s capital funding for this scheme has been allocated to the project.

This funding is restricted to specific improvements to market towns and active travel and will not enable construction at this stage.

Next steps

We are currently undertaking the design stage of the scheme. 

A public engagement exercise took place between 24 June and 22 July 2025 to gather ideas from local people on how Wantage Market Place could become more vibrant, welcoming and accessible. The engagement included an online survey and was supported by two drop-in events for members of the public to meet the project team and ask questions.  

You can still view the engagement on our Let’s Talk Oxfordshire platform; however, the survey is closed to contributions. Feedback from the survey has been analysed and compiled into a report. A copy of this is available on Let’s Talk Oxfordshire.

In addition to the consultation in July 2025, an in-person workshop was held in October 2025, to give more detail about the project and its early findings, and to give local people a chance to have their say on how improvements can be made to Market Place. 

A steering group, made up of representatives from the local community, also meets regularly to help shape the design ideas. 

All the feedback will be used to develop a preliminary design and masterplan, which we will then present for further consultation during 2026. 

Contact us

If you would like to know more, you can contact us via email   wantagemarketplace@oxfordshire.gov.uk