Wallingford is bidding to become one of the country's first plastic bag-free towns.

Councillors, business people, voluntary organisations and schoolchildren are all part of the campaign to get people to ditch plastic bags and use calico, cotton or other reusable bags instead.

Last year, Wantage launched the Wantage Bag' with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and the county council. It is part of a snowballing movement started in Modbury in Devon - the UK's first plastic bag-free town.

Children at St John's Primary School in Wallingford came up with the slogan Be Drastic - Ban Plastic' after researching the environmental damage plastic bags do and presenting their findings at an assembly in front of mayor Betty Atkins, Wallingford Business Partnership chairman Elaine Hornsby, green group Sustainable Wallingford and staff from Waitrose, the town's only supermarket.

A public meeting in the Corn Exchange at 5.30pm on Tuesday, March 4, will give the campaign more impetus.

Wallingford Town Council has its own eco-friendly bag with pictures of Wallingford on the side, which is available in the town information centre at the town hall for £3.95.