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 closer 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

The project is at an early stage and a design is yet to be developed. We need your thoughts, feelings and suggestions to help shape the project designs and goals. We would like to find out what is important to the local community and how we can make it economically and environmentally useful for future years.

Your feedback will be used to develop a preliminary design and masterplan, which we will then present for further consultation early next year. 

We invite you to take part in our community engagement activities, including an online survey, digital interactive map where you can drop pins and make comments and two drop-in events where you can speak with the project team. 

Our community engagement will run from 12 noon Tuesday 24 June to 11:59pm Tuesday 22 July 2025, on our digital consultation and engagement platform, Let’s Talk Oxfordshire.

We will also be holding two public events where you can learn more and share your feedback: 

• Saturday 5 July - 10am–4pm Vale & Downland Museum, 19 Church St, Wantage OX12 8BL
• Wednesday 9 July - 5pm–8pm Wantage Methodist Church, 20 Newbury St, Wantage OX12 8DA

If you, or anyone you know, is unable to view the information online or visit our drop-in events. 

Printed copies of the survey will also be available from the following locations: 

• Wantage Library, Stirlings Rd, Wantage OX12 7BB
• The Beacon Centre, Portway, Wantage OX12 9BX
• Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, New Road, OX1 1ND  

Contact us

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