The Vacant Shops Academy

HWBIDCo has thrown down the gauntlet to ambitious entrepreneurs looking to market test their business on the high street. The new Enterprise HQ space, created in Church Street, High Wycombe has been set up as a high profile commercial space to encourage new or start-up businesses to consider the benefits of trading in the town centre. Continue reading →

Work to revitalise Wantage has received a national seal of approval after the town won a Great British High Street Award.

Wantage has won the Town Centre Category in the awards which recognise innovative town centres where projects bring more people and business to the area. Continue reading →

Traders in Banbury’s Parsons Street have welcomed the latest business to join them – as it takes on a unit there that’s thought to have been empty for more than six years.

Simon Hammans is opening his specialist outdoor clothing and equipment business, freshairjunkie (www.freshairjunkie.co.uk), in the former Bernard Smith’s Curtain Shop at 38 Parsons Street. Continue reading →

Schemes to revitalise Wantage town centre have received a major seal of approval after the town was short listed for a national award.

Summer Saturday visitors and shoppers in Wantage will get an extra special musical welcome to the town centre, thanks to a free public performance initiative. Continue reading →

Oxfordshire landlords Jennings have announced a £10m expansion plan for their flagship business park, which could bring up to 300 new jobs to the area. Continue reading →

Paintings of Wantage and Grove landmarks by some of the district’s youngest artists have gone on display, as part of a new public art and performance initiative.

Ten paintings by children aged two to four have gone up in the wall-mounted display boxes of Wantage’s Victoria Cross Gallery. The project is part of a new initiative by Wantage’s town team, who are looking to encourage opportunities for local people of all ages to display examples of their art work or perform music or theatre in the town. Continue reading →

Representatives of fifty businesses and organisations talked careers and job opportunities to Oxfordshire students at the 2014 OCL ‘Have a Go’ Careers Fest. Two thousand students aged 14-18 from 18 Oxfordshire schools attended the two day event, hosted by MINI Plant Oxford. Continue reading →

A new community space for Wantage has opened following the refurbishment of an empty shop on the town’s Mill Street. Called ‘The Mix’, it’s being run by the non-profit cooperative group, Sustainable Wantage, and is available for local groups and organisations to hire, and host a range of skill share workshops, fund-raising activities and recycling, resource-saving and re-use initiatives. Continue reading →

The first two businesses to use Wantage’s Flashop pop-up shop are back in town, for a longer stint. Baby & children’s boutique, Cotswold Kids, and independent ladies footwear specialist, Valentina’s Shoe Box, have taken on the adjoining unit – 18 Mill Street – for three months. Both businesses already have shops in Witney, and are looking to Wantage as part of their expansion plans. Continue reading →