AWARD-WINNING Wantage is looking for a market town co-ordinator to keep on making it a vibrant commercial and tourism hub.

Vale of White Horse District Council is advertising a two-year contract for a commercial guru worth between £25,000 and £40,000.

It follows a successful three-year programme by the council's town team, led by Iain Nicholson and Mim Norvell, to boost the town's economy.

Over that time the duo have helped fill empty shop units, draw up new town maps, create a town prospectus and run a pop-up shop scheme in Mill Street, where entrepreneurs were invited to road-test their wares on Wantage shoppers.

According to the Vale, the pair helped increase the number of people visiting Wantage town centre by 19 per cent between 2014 and 2015.

Their work to revitalise Wantage paid off when the town was awarded a Great British High Street Award in 2014.

It is a far cry from 2009 when a string of empty shops in Mill Street earned Wantage a place in the Daily Mail as a symbol for recession-hit England.

The district council is now hoping to build on its success and will allocate the money over a two-year period to help "improve the visitor experience" in Wantage and bring more people to the area.

Council leader Matt Barber said: "We’re really pleased with the work so far to promote the Vale, and hope to see our towns get the credit and attention they deserve with the help of the right individuals.

"It’s really important to celebrate and promote our market towns, which is exactly what we want to achieve with this funding."

Anyone who thinks they have got what it takes to help promote Wantage can find out more at tinyurl.com/h5pp2sn