Frequently asked questions (FAQs) - Wantage Market Place Improvements

We have received funding to invest in Wantage Market Place to improve accessibility for those who are less able, make it easier to walk, wheel and cycle into and around town and improve the town centre for nearby residents and visitors.     

Working with the local community, we have outlined four key objectives for the Wantage Market Place Improvements project:

• Creating a Welcoming Space

You told us you want everyone to feel welcome and safe in the Market Place. By making the area more accessible and reducing the chances of conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles, we aim to enhance the sense of community where people can spend time and engage with each other.

• Enhancing the Environment

You wanted more greenery. By adding trees and plants and making the Market Place more accessible, we hope to encourage more people to wheel, walk and cycle, thereby reducing pollution from cars and increasing biodiversity.

• Improving Public Transport Access

You wanted to make travelling to and from the Market Place by bus quicker, easier, and more reliable. This will be helped by reduced traffic in the town centre, thanks to recent opening of the new King Alfred Way.

• Supporting Local Businesses and Economy

You wanted to boost your local economy and support local businesses. Creating a vibrant social space with local stakeholders, would enable more seasonal and local events, markets, street trading, and dining. This will bring attract both residents and tourists.

£500,000 of Oxfordshire County Council’s own capital funding for this scheme has been awarded to:

•         Co-design the project, working with you to understand what you need from the space, what you would like to see and how you would like to use Market Place in the future. You are our experts by experience.

•         Undertake studies to work out how people travel to and from Market Place, where they come from and how long they stay for. We will also be investigating how any potential changes to traffic might affect other locations around Wantage and Grove.

•         Survey the area by scanning the ground and digging holes to find out where all the pipes and cables are, to ensure that any future project avoids the historic underground tunnels.

•         Design a masterplan based on your needs identified during the co-design part of the project and ask you about it as part of a consultation.

The funding is designated for specific improvements of market towns and active travel. It will not enable construction of the project at this stage. However, as the designs develop with your input, we will bid for further funding to enable construction. This may take a number of years.

The Oxfordshire Local Transport and Connectivity Plan aims to reduce the need for individual private car journeys, and make walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choice. It has ambitious targets including to reduce one in four car trips by 2030, to deliver a net-zero transport network by 2040 and to prevent road fatalities and life changing injuries by 2050. Investment in active travel will help us achieve these targets.

The terms ‘pedestrians, wheelers and cyclists’ are people who ‘walk, wheel and cycle’. People wheeling includes those who depend on non-motorised or low speed wheels. Examples include wheelchairs, children in buggies and mobility scooters.

Since the pandemic, the West End of Market Place, between Alfred Street and Church Street, has been prioritised for pedestrians under temporary Traffic Regulation Orders.

This initiative, promoted by Wantage Town Council, provides outdoor seating and a safe, accessible route into Market Place from Mill Street. Oxfordshire County Council is considering making these changes permanent to maintain a traffic-free, accessible route and support local businesses by removing uncertainty about this area and providing a clear basis upon which to build your ideas.

What happens next

In the summer of 2025, a recommendation will be made to Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet, where relevant councillors will discuss making the traffic regulation order for the West End permanent.

This order was consulted upon in Summer 2023 and changes have been made to the overall design to incorporate feedback from the public during that process.

Should a decision be made to continue with the West End traffic regulation order, then work can begin to design and develop plans to convert the existing tarmac space into a paved location, more fitting for the historic town centre location. The new space would be easier to use by those with mobility issues, families and businesses (including the market) wishing to trade outside.

We are seeking your thoughts, feelings and ideas to help shape designs to improve Market Place for many years to come.

The feedback we get from planned engagement sessions, online survey responses, discussion with local councillors, community groups and other correspondence will help to develop a draft design. Early in 2026 we will share the preliminary design as part of a further consultation on the enhancements to Market Place.

The aim is to enhance Market Place as a space that people can access easily by walking, wheeling, cycling, public transport, or from one of the 765 off-street car parking spaces within five minutes walk of Wantage town centre.

It is hoped that improving this area will attract more people, who will stay longer. We want to hear what businesses want, be it better loading bays, seating outside their premises or other street improvements.

We want to help create a space with you that draws in tourists and visitors to enjoy this unique location and the many places of interest around the town centre, whilst supporting local businesses in the process.

Designs will be available to view and discuss as we move through the process, during further consultation and during our engagement sessions. If the project requires planning permission, it will go through the Statutory Planning Process where you will have a chance to review plans and comment on them.

Engagement and design work is currently underway, and surveys will be conducted throughout this year. A consultation on the final masterplan will take place in early 2026.

At present we only have funding to start this initial part of the project. If successful at consultation we will begin the bidding process to start detailed design and construction work in the future, depending on what feedback we receive from the local community on the future use of the space.

We want to be sure we are using the money granted to deliver improvements that will most benefit local people so want to take time to hear from as many people as possible. This helps our aim to ensure everyone’s needs and aspirations are met as equitably as we can.

Taking our time means we can hear from everyone on what matters to them and use that information to inform the proposals and be sure not to rush a project in such an important area of the town.

A draft design will be developed from people’s feedback. During the winter 2025/26 we will invite people to look at the draft design and feedback on what works well and what might need adjusting. That feedback will then be reviewed and used to make any necessary amendments before finalising the project in the spring of 2026.

If you like what you see during the consultation, we can begin the process of bidding for funding to conduct more detailed design and construction phases.

An online exhibition will run from midday on 24 June to midnight on 22 July 2025, where you will be able to view background information on the project, complete a survey and leave comments on a map of Wantage Market place. The exhibition and survey will be on the Let’s Talk Oxfordshire platform:  https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wantage-market-place. 

There will be two drop-in events for the public to speak to the project team in person and hear about our plans in person on:

•         Saturday 5 July, 10am–4pm, Vale & Downland Museum, 19 Church St, Wantage OX12 8BL

•         Wed 9 July, Wantage Methodist Church, 5pm–8pm, 20 Newbury St, Wantage OX12 8DA

Printed copies of the project details and a short survey will also be available from:

•         Wantage Library, Stirlings Rd, Wantage OX12 7BB

•         The Beacon Centre, Portway, Wantage OX12 9BX

•         Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, New Road, OX1 1ND

For general enquiries, you can contact the project team via email   WantageMarketPlace@Oxfordshire.gov.uk

Officers from the county council will be engaging with local businesses, residents, commuters, accessibility groups and visitors over the coming weeks. There will be a series of planned workshops for councillors, key stakeholder groups and businesses from June to complement the public exhibition events.

Officers will also be carrying out some engagement with local school groups in Wantage to get feedback from local school students. Please contact us if you would like your school to get involved.

Both venues are accessible, and you can drop in at any time during the hours shown in Event details. 

If you need to ask specific questions about accessibility for the events please email WantageMarketPlace@Oxfordshire.gov.uk and we will be happy to advise where we can.

We welcome feedback from all ages at the engagement sessions and in correspondence sent to the county council project team (email WantageMarketPlace@Oxfordshire.gov.uk  or write to us at: FREEPOST Oxfordshire County Council.   No further address details required. Please write 'Wantage Market Place Improvements' in the top right corner so that we know what is inside the envelope.

Anyone who is over 13 years old can respond to the online/paper surveys.