Sir, What fantastic news! The front page of the Wantage and Grove Herald (November 12) says ‘Awards hail Wantage as Britain’s best town centre’ in the Great British Town Awards.

Surely accolades don’t come much better than that. So, many many congratulations to town co-ordinators Mim Norvell and Iain Nicholson, and anyone else who got behind this initiative.

If you haven’t managed to keep up to speed on this one, this initiative resulted in 21 of the 23 vacant shop premises in Wantage town centre being utilised on a short-term basis by new and growing businesses, five of which have opened permanent premises.

However, my euphoria is somewhat tempered by the lack of awareness by some of this fact, and perhaps more distressing, their lack of belief that Wantage could beat 130 other towns. Well, Wantage did, fact!

I believe the residents of Wantage and Grove and the surrounding villages need to get right behind this initiative and use the local independent shops in order to make those businesses sustainable. So, please might I, via your paper, encourage my fellow residents who fire into the supermarket and out again on a regular basis to venture a little further the next time they visit Wantage so as to better experience our award-winning town. I think the phrase is — ‘use it or lose it’.

It’s great to have some good news in this time of houses everywhere and not a jot of infrastructure.

Mark Rowe

Highclere Gardens

Wantage