This week sees the launch of the new ‘Love Bicester’ shopping bag in two of the town’s markets.
 
Earlier in the year Bicester Vision (1) was successful in gaining £6,000 from Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) towards a project to free Bicester of plastic bags (2).
 
Staff from Bicester vision, OWP and Cherwell District Council will be at the Thursday Farmers’ Market and the Bicester Town Market on Friday in Sheep Street to give out the ‘Love Bicester’ bag to anyone who makes a purchase.
 
Rachel Faulkner is Bicester Vision’s partnership manager and is running the plastic bag free Bicester project. She says: “We wanted to make a funky fashionable bag that people would be proud to carry around and also declare their love for their town. With Valentines’ Day falling at the weekend it’s a perfect time for people to declare their love for Bicester and the environment!”
 
OWP chair, Cllr John Tanner adds: “Plastic bags have become a recognisable symbol of consumption and litter and we’re proud that so many groups and individuals across Oxfordshire are working to tackle the problem. The once humble carrier bag is a terrible waste of precious resources such as oil and the more we can say no and use our own bags the better.”
 
Bicester Vision is keen to support the monthly Farmers’ Market which has struggled to attract the usual interest at other Oxfordshire sites. It offers something extra to the town and complements high street shops, but with fewer customers attending the market, its future is in doubt.
 
Peter Williams organises the market on behalf of Thames Valley Farmers Market. “It’s great to have this support so that our traders will be able to offer punters a reusable bag,” says Peter.  “But importantly, we need the customers to come and support us to ensure the market continues to operate in Bicester.”