Please note that this section is presented as an archive of past columns and is not updated. Some web links may no longer be active (usually indicated by a score-through), for instance when a consultation has closed. For reasons of space, the Events, Community Notices and News from Your Local Councils sections have been deleted from the archive posts.
To see the current Wantage Area Weekly News section, please click here.
Other archives
Please click here to see the other archived columns for this (and all the other) weekly news sections.
Thursday 15 January 2026
Our usual round-up of Wantage area news includes the Wantage Chamber takes a look at business rates, the Vale Council responds to the reservoir consultation, a look at two similar but also different chalk streams and a look back at 2025 – plus art, connections, chess, fuel bills, lunches, dances and a new book. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.
Upcoming Wantage area events include Making Connections Workshop & Wantage Art Group. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.
• Business rates
If there were no method of taxing businesses and one had to be found, no sane person would come up with the current system of business rates. None the less, that’s what we’re stuck with. This has come to people’s attention again because recent revaluations have produced some massive increases for many retail businesses.
Regardless of how many manage to survive this – and not all will – the whole system needs reform. To tax a business on the basis of an arbitrary evaluation of the value of the property, rather than the profitability of the business itself, is insane. One might as well tax domestic residents according to how much their house might be worth rather than on how much they earn – oh, hang on, I’ve just described council tax. That needs sorting out, too.
Business rates are more serious, though. For one thing, the sums involved can be vastly higher than what you pay at home. Also, it doesn’t confer any benefits at all, not even getting your businesses’ bins emptied.
Also, forget the idea that at last whet you’re paying is benefitting people in your district. The retention rates vary but, to pick one example, West Berkshire Council only keeps about 15% of the business rates it collects. The rest ends up with the Treasury for redistribution to other areas. That seems fine until you reflect that a Commons committee in 2019 described this system as “broken”.
What we’re looking at here, therefore, is not a levy which particularly benefits the local area or is bases on any particular ability to pay, but a rather crude and partially regressive tax that is, through an archaic and capricious system, levied on people who run their own businesses.
This matter was considered at the meeting of the Wantage Chamber of Commerce earlier this week and which was addressed for the PCC Matthew Barber. You can read our account of it here. Many of the concerns expressed have a far wider application than just OX12.
• Reservoir reaction
Vale of White Horse District Council has submitted its consultation response on Thames Water’s proposed reservoir for the district. “We’ve provided our feedback on Thames Water’s statutory public consultation,” the Vale’s leader Bethia Thomas said, “and we will continue to represent our residents and urge water providers, regulators and government to listen to local voices.”
The council has argued the plans fail to fully consider the long-term impacts to the local community and the environment, both during a decade of construction and the irreparable damage to the countryside. Any reservoir would also come at the expense of significant carbon emissions which the council argues would impact the district’s ability to become carbon neutral by 2045.
“Thames Water has still failed to make a plausible case for the damaging, disruptive and pointless giant mega-reservoir,” the Vale’s Water Champion Andy Cooke said. “We remain opposed to the current proposal, with all of the issues that are inextricably linked to its world-beating size as a fully-funded reservoir – issues that remain unaddressed even at this supposedly late stage of design.”
You can click here for the Vale’s statement which includes links to the consultation and the Vale’s response.
• Two different chalk streams
As we report here, the upper reaches of the mighty River Lambourn have recently sprung back into life. This is an almost magical transformation from dry river bed to swiftly flowing chalk stream which often happens t this time of year and which can take effect over only a few days.
When the river isn’t flowing, there’s virtually no amount of rain that will make it do so until the underground aquifers are ready. Any surface water will rarely settle for more than a few hours: then it’s gone, mainly by being infiltrated into the soil. This is in contrast to the superficially quite similar Letcome Brook a few miles to the north where rainwater will have a more immediate effect.
The water water behaves is a complicated business and it’s not one I clearly understand. What was needed was a clear article written by an expert which could explain these differences: and this week, I found one. Many thanks to Colin Lloyd, one of the founders of Future Flood Resilience, for writing this and for assisting me in writing a layman’s summary of it. You can read this article here.
• A look back at 2025
We’ve covered a large number of stories in this area over the last twelve months. See last week’s column (below) for some of the major ones, several of which won’t go away or keep coming back…
• Other news
• All welcome at the exciting Making Connections workshop on Saturday 17 January with the Oxfordshire Doughnut Economic Collective. Come and explore connections and ways of working together using the framework of Doughnut Economics, to ensure the community and environment thrive. The workshop will be at Down to Earth Cafe from 1 to 4pm. See details and book free tickets here.
• Next Wednesday 21 January, the Wantage Art Group is hosting its first session of the year, looking at ink-pencils and blocks at East Challow Village Hall at 7.30pm. New members and visitors always welcome, for further details click here.
• HEG Community Café in East Hendred is back open this week with exciting news that starting Monday 19 January, there is a new Chess Club every week from 2.30pm to 3.30 pm. All ages and skill levels welcome and tea and coffee will be available, so please bring your own cup or flask. To find out more, click here.
• Wantage Bookshop’s first reading recommendation for 2026 includes valuable books to help you harness positivity and optimism this year, and some new novels they can’t wait to read.
• White Horse Ceilidhs invite you to their Winter Ceilidh (Barn Dance) on Saturday 31 January in Grove Village Hall with Sunbird playing, calling from Jane Bird & Lucy Sing and a half time spot from Theale Tattoo Step Clog Team. No previous experience required so why not get a group of friends together and treat yourselves to a night of live music and excellent entertainment with a bar and real ale. Please reserve tickets from the website.
• Want to keep warm, save energy and reduce your fuel bills? Pop along to the ‘Draughtbust Your Home’ Workshop with the Sustainable Wantage Draughtbusters at The Mix, on Mill Street in Wantage on Saturday 31 January. To help you get the most out of this workshop you receive a ‘Draughtbust your home’ checklist when you book, so you can check your home and bring your findings along to the workshop. On the day the Draughtbusters will explain common issues and fixes, and advise on specific issues; if you have a particular issue you’d like to discuss it’s useful to bring along some photos if you can. You’ll also learn about ventilation, and how to use your heating controls effectively. This workshop is free, but need to be booked here.
• Quick reminder that Down to Earth Community Cafe is providing free community lunches every Tuesday for the next three months. See the mouth-watering details here. This is made possible by council funding and the cafe’s own ‘pay it forward’ scheme where customers make donations.
• Penny Post’s second volume of short stories and parodies by Brian Quinn, Gravity and Rust, is now available from any bookshop, including Wantage and Hungerford Bookshops and the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough. Click here for more information.
• Save the Date: Grove and Wantage Extravaganza is returning bigger and better than ever on Saturday 13 June 2026. This much-loved community celebration will take place at Grove Recreation Ground, Recreation Lane, Grove, proudly hosted by Grove Rugby Club, in partnership with The Ray Collins Charitable Trust. This marks a new chapter in collaboration and community spirit. If you’d like to get involved please email Volunteering@groverfc.co.uk or join the facebook group here.
• Have you ever considered becoming a Volunteer Driver? Even just one drive a week can help someone access vital services and uplift their quality of life. Hours are flexible and can be arranged around your schedule and fuel is reimbursed at 45p per mile for your contribution. If you’re curious to learn more please reach out by contacting Vale Community Impact at 01235 765348 or recruitment@vci.org.uk.
• Would you like to volunteer your business expertise to help Education Business Partnership prepare our local young people? Please see here for more details.
• Click here for the latest news from the Wantage Bookshop.
• Latest local newsletters
• South & Vale Business Support
• Challow News
• Letcombe Register
• Wantage Town Council Town News
• Wantage and Grove Campaign Group (dissolved on 5/11/25 but website is still live)
Thursday 8 January 2026
Our usual round-up of Wantage area news includes re-starting the local plan and a look back at 2025 – plus trees, science, making connections, trams, grants and draughts. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.
Upcoming Wantage area events include Wantage Café Scientifique & Talk on The Wantage Tramway. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.
• Re-starting the local plan
The following statement was issued by the Vale Council on 8 January:
“Council officers will meet with government planning Inspectors with the hope the districts’ Joint Local Plan will continue its examination. In September, Inspectors examining the district councils’ plan said it had failed on the “Duty to Co-operate”, suggesting the councils might need to withdraw the plan from the examination process as a result.
“But following a ministerial statement from Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, the government indicated that it intended to remove the Duty to Co-operate from the plan making process early this year, and that it would apply to Local Plans currently going through the examination process.
“The Inspectors examining the Joint Local Plan wrote to the councils asking them how they’d like to proceed and they replied they’d like the examinations hearings to resume so the plan can move forward towards adoption. The councils have now received a response from the Inspectors saying they have decided to hold a Procedural Meeting (PM) with the councils to discuss the best way forward for the examination process.
“The meeting, which will be held in public at a date and time to be confirmed, will not discuss the soundness of the Plan but instead will focus on practical arrangements of resuming the examination of the Plan given the anticipated change in the law.
“Anne-Marie Simpson, South Oxfordshire District Council Cabinet Member for Planning, said: ‘This news offers some welcome encouragement that our Joint Local Plan examination can move forward and we look forward to the meeting with Inspectors to discuss how this could happen. As I’ve said before, I believe this plan delivers on our vision and priorities as well as providing help to our neighbouring districts.’
“Andy Foulsham, Vale of White Horse District Council Cabinet Member for Policy, Programmes and IT, said: ‘I’m pleased the Inspectors’ reply suggests that the tireless work over the past four years to reach this stage will not be wasted. This is a good Local Plan – it’s robust, innovative, forward-thinking and based on strong community engagement’.”
• A look back at 2025
We’ve covered a large number in stories in this area over the last twelve months. We’ve picked out some of the major ones below, several of which won’t go away or keep coming back…
• The reservoir. Thames Water’s plans for a massive – and we mean really, really big – reservoir north of Wantage has continued to attract a lot of opposition. Construction impact, the danger of leaks and collapse (TW’s record in this area is not strong) and environmental damage have all been cited. Even more seriously, many are claiming that the reservoir is not needed at all. TW seems as convinced as ever: many opponents, including the Vale Council are far less convinced. The scheme continues to make its way through the almost impenetrable stages of the planning and approval system. it remains to seen if anything can hold it up.
• The joint local plan. The Vale and South Oxon Councils do almost everything together including, for the first time, creating a joint local plan to guide development in the districts. This was thrown out by the Planning Inspectors in October on the grounds that an insufficient duty of co-operation had been shown with regard to Oxford City Council. A government policy change in late 2025 meant that this duty, while remaining a factor, cannot be the sole reason for refusing a plan, so the two authorities hope that it can be re-examined as it stands.
• Council reorganisation. The above-mentioned Vale and South Oxon have decided that their best interests under the government’s reforms lie with teaming up with West Berkshire. This would create a unitary authority of about the intended 500,000 population and also escape what each feels to be the overbearing influence of, respectively, Oxford and Reading. Time will tell if the proposed Ridgeway Council meets with Whitehall’s approval.
• The Chamber of Commerce. We’ve attended all the public meetings in 2025, which cover a range of topics directly relevant to the town, and written reports on each. Some of these are referred to elsewhere in this section.
• A town-centre strategy for Wantage. Oxfordshire County Council is certain to be abolished under the new plans – although one unitary covering the same area is a possibility – but the authority remains full of ambition. One of these is town-centre strategy for Wantgage. However, the presentation of this at Chamber of Commerce meetings in June and September provided more questions than answers. Such schemes are often wooly at the outset but, as Hungerford discovered, have the capacity to expose previously dormant fault-lines in a community. In Wantage’s case these involved the question of pedestrianisation, which recalled for many the disastrous attempts to implement this in 2023. A good scheme may emerge from this but, unless the business community and others are fully behind, opposition or scepticism will remain. Work in progress.
• Wantage Leisure Centre. This has been badly in need of renovation for some time. Last year, we looked at the various funding streams (including government grants and S106 contributions) that were available for different aspects of the work, not all of which could be accessed at the same time. Some work has now taken place; more remains to be done.
• A non-existant crime wave. In March, an “article” was published in a local newspaper regarding crime in the town, a lurid picture of which was painted as a result of a really basic statistical misunderstanding. This was drawn to our attention and we were able to provide a more balanced view the following week. In May, the PCC Matthew Barber attended a meeting of the Wantage Chamber of Commerce and was able to provide further reassurance on this point.
• Wantage Town Council’s newsletter. In the last year or so, the Town Council has produced a regular newsletter with information about its activities and life in the town and we’ve been happy to like to and summarise this.
• The railway station. Re-opening the Wantage Road station in Grove has been an article of faith for local politicians for decades. Recent moves towards a direct service between Bristol and Oxford – on which the viability of this seems to be predicated – have recently led to further hopes that this might be accomplished.
• Development in OX12. As local residents will have noticed, there are a lot of developments in the area: one major concern is whether the infrastructure can be supplied to match the extra population. This also has knock-on effects on matters such as parking in Wantage itself. We’ve done our best to report on the bewildering number of applications, decisions, appeals, conditions and consequences of all this building.
• The Wantage and Grove Campaign Group. Finally, a hats-off to this organisation, which disbanded in 2025, which for many years has drawn attention to many of the issues referred to above. Good work done: and much left to do for any organisation which feels need to step into the breach. The issues about which the W&GCG was campaigning – which was for a balanced and responsible approach to development, not an unthinking nimby-ism – remain as live as ever.
• Other stories we’ve covered in the area in 2024 include the possible re-instatement of the iconic airplane at the Grove Industrial Park, Wantage Town Council’s survey, funding issues at The Beacon and the Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage and some progress with restoring more services to the Wantage Community Hospital.
• Other news
• If you have a real Christmas tree that needs disposing off, there are various collection points you can drop it off at, provided by Vale of White Horse District Council. In Wantage you can take your tree to the Charlton Park Garden Centre, with the last collection date being Saturday 10 January. If you can’t make it there before the weekend, there are other collection points in the district open until 15 January, such as the corner of Coulings Close in East Hendred. To see the full list of collection points and dates, click here. Those that are subscribed to the garden waste service, just leave it by your brown bin on your next scheduled collection day, which restart from Friday 9 January.
• Next Wednesday 14 January Wantage Café Scientifique have their first event of the year. Dr Scott Roberts will be giving a talk on ‘The Adventures of a Lucky Entrepreneur: From Harwell to the Roof of Western Europe ‘, at the Wildwood Cinema from 7.30pm. To find out more, click here.
• Friends of the Vale & Downland Museum invite you to a fascinating talk on The Wantage Tramway on Thursday 15 January. See here for details and how to book.
• Down to Earth Community Cafe is providing free community lunches every Tuesday for the next three months. See the mouth-watering details here. This is made possible by council funding and the cafe’s own ‘pay it forward’ scheme where customers make donations.
• All welcome at an exciting Making Connections workshop on Saturday 17 January with the Oxfordshire Doughnut Economic Collective. Come and explore connections and ways of working together using the framework of Doughnut Economics, to ensure the community and environment thrive. The workshop will be at Down to Earth Cafe from 1 to 4pm. See details and book free tickets here.
• Penny Post’s second volume of short stories and parodies by Brian Quinn, Gravity and Rust, is now available from any bookshop, including Wantage and Hungerford Bookshops and the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough. Click here for more information.
• South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils continue to offer the Disabled Facilities Grant to help disabled and vulnerable residents make their homes safer, more comfortable, and better suited to their needs. The Disabled Facilities Grant is a means-tested grant providing financial help for home adaptations, such as installing ramps and stairlifts. To find out more about this, including who is eligible and how to apply, click here.
• Save the Date: Grove and Wantage Extravaganza is returning bigger and better than ever on Saturday 13 June 2026. This much-loved community celebration will take place at Grove Recreation Ground, Recreation Lane, Grove, proudly hosted by Grove Rugby Club, in partnership with The Ray Collins Charitable Trust. This marks a new chapter in collaboration and community spirit. If you’d like to get involved please email Volunteering@groverfc.co.uk or join the facebook group here.
• Quick reminder at this time of year that Sustainable Wantage Draughtbusters offer free visits to assess and fix draughts in your house, which could help you save energy, reduce bills and reduce your carbon footprint. Click here to learn more.
• Wantage Choral Society is a thriving mixed voice choir that always welcomes new singers. For rehearsal times and more details please contact membership secretary Delia Greaves at wantagechoralsociety@gmail.com.
• Quick reminder from Citizens Advice about the most common types of scam, how to avoid them and what to do if you get caught. Sadly, once someone has been scammed, they can be preyed upon by other scammers, pretending to help them. The golden rule is if something seems too good to be true or doesn’t feel right it might be a scam, so take a moment and get advice or just ask a friend.
• Have you ever considered becoming a Volunteer Driver? Even just one drive a week can help someone access vital services and uplift their quality of life. Hours are flexible and can be arranged around your schedule and fuel is reimbursed at 45p per mile for your contribution. If you’re curious to learn more please reach out by contacting Vale Community Impact at 01235 765348 or recruitment@vci.org.uk.
• Would you like to volunteer your business expertise to help Education Business Partnership prepare our local young people? Please see here for more details.
• Click here for the latest news from the Wantage Bookshop.
• Latest local newsletters
• South & Vale Business Support
• Challow News
• Letcombe Register
• Wantage Town Council Town News
• Wantage and Grove Campaign Group (dissolved on 5/11/25 but website is still live)
• News from other areas
- Penny Post area: see the following separate sections: Hungerford area; Lambourn Valley; Newbury area; Thatcham area; Compton and Downlands; Burghfield area; Wantage area; Marlborough area.
- News and views from across the area and beyond: see the most recent Weekly News with Brian column.
Other archives
Please click here to see the other archived columns for this (and all the other) weekly news sections.
