BICESTER is celebrating becoming the UK’s 500th Fairtrade town.

The accolade, in recognition of the town’s efforts to promote ethically-sourced products and pay farmers and workers in the developing world a fair price for their produce, is hardly a controversial one.

However, the race to become the country’s 5001st Fairtrade Town has divided traders and councillors in Witney.

Campaigners there have supported ethical trading for many years. But they face an uphill battle to persuade its town council to support the initiative – a prerequisite to gaining status.

Wendy Maddison, coordinator for Witney Area Fair Trade Action Group, said: “I am really thrilled to hear of Bicester’s success and we only hope it will encourage Witney Town Council to enable us to go ahead with the bid in Witney.”

The group has created a petition to get Fairtrade status, which has been signed by 2,700 people, including Prime Minister David Cameron, author Philip Pullman and Alex James of the band Blur.

But town clerk Sharon Groth said: “The settled view of the council is that it supports the aims and objectives of Fairtrade but considers that it is a matter of individual preference as to whether consumers buy Fairtrade products or not.”

Oxford, Banbury and Faringdon already have the status.

Bicester’s status was revealed at a ceremony in Cardiff last week.

Colin Cockshaw, of the Bicester Fairtrade Steering Group, said the group had spent four years persuading residents, businesses and organisations to use Fairtrade products.

It was also responsible for persuading Rail operator Chiltern Railways to switch all its onboard coffee and hot chocolate to Fairtrade.

He said: “Being number 500 is really great. It has been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.”