Rural Oxfordshire

BBC Oxford has teamed up with the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council which is based in Yarnton.

The Oxfordshire Rural Community Council is a charity that supports rural communities in our area and works to improve the quality of life for those who live or work in rural Oxfordshire.

We hope that throughout the year we can get a clear picture of what it is like to live in Oxfordshire's rural communities in 2008.

Over the year we will work with people from across the county gaining an insight in many aspects of everyday rural life from affordable housing to public transport and education and most importantly the people who make the communities what they are.

We want you to be a big part of our year. Let us know what is important to you, and what should we be looking at this year? What has changed over the years for the better or has rural life become much harder?

Walkers in Islip

Also help us to celebrate rural life - we want to speak to and hear from the real people who hold your communities together. What can you get from living in the countryside that those in urban areas miss out on?

Listen to BBC Oxford 95.2FM and watch BBC Oxford News to see and hear stories from your area as we meet the people that make up rural Oxfordshire and hear what matters to them.

We launched on the 18th March...and so far you have missed..

• Our look around Village of the year for 2007, Steeple Aston
• The breakfast programme exploring the importance of the Village Hall
• the people from Watlington who with the help of the ORCC have started their own bus service, after theirs had its funding cut
• Daytime found out about the 10th Anniversary of TOE and the work it has done to help Oxfordshire's rural environment
• We told you how you can get a grant to help the play area's in your village

Features to listen out for...

• Jo Thoenes continues to explore the village hall and the part it plays as being a centre of a village community
• Our Reporter Alastair Fee spending a week out and about rural Oxfordshire, finding out what matters to you

Only here on BBC Oxford 95.2FM will you find out first who the winning village is for 2008 - Wednesday 2nd July, 2pm with Jo Thoenes