YOUTH charities in Oxford are having to scale back their activities and use their reserves to pay basic costs after the axing of funding sources.

According to Oxford City Council, the demand for its youth ambition fund has more than doubled and is coming from “organisations that in previous years would not have applied for funding”.

The local authority has received applications for more than £100,000 of cash from groups this year, exceeding the £60,000 it has to give. Last year funding applications totalled £45,430.

The surge in demand comes after Oxfordshire County Council axed two of its funds for youth projects in February, worth a combined £280,000. It was part of wider savings of more than £280m the county council has to make by 2018 as a result of government cuts.

But city charities have warned they are competing against each other for a shrinking amount of money.

Alex Brooks of My Life My Choice, an Oxford charity which helps young people with learning disabilities, said the organisation had closed its “self-advocacy” group in the city after failing to secure funding for another year from the city council.

Ms Brooks said: “Everyone is under financial pressure and we had a funding request declined, which has been very difficult.

“We are having to strategise, find funding from different avenues and come up with new ways of working and that is a huge task “The reality is that because of the hits we are taking groups will have to close down and our impact will be affected.

“We are hopeful we can ride this out, but we are having to make some difficult decisions, which is really sad.”

A report to Oxford City Council’s scrutiny committee warned that more funding bids were coming from groups that had not previously sought assistance, including those delivering care and groups working with children and young people.

It was also warned that charities were spending their reserves on overhead costs, such as staff and bills.

In February the county council approved an extra £20m savings in its budget, which included a decision to axe the Positive Activities Fund for 11- to 19-year-olds, worth £180,000, and the Chill Out Fund for children of eight and up, worth £100,000.

Melinda Tilley, county council cabinet member for children, education and families, said: “We were very sorry to have to stop funding the Activities Fund or the Chill Out Fund, but at the moment funding pressures are coming down on us like a ton of bricks.”