PARENTS urged councillors to reconsider the closures of children’s centres yesterday in a protest outside County Hall.

As members of Oxfordshire County Council filed into the New Road building, angry protestors stood outside singing “no ifs, no buts, no children’s centre cuts”.

It came after the local authority proposed on Monday to close all 44 of the county’s centres and seven early intervention hubs, as part of plans to save £8m.

They would be replaced with eight “family support centres’ and a new service for youngsters aged up to 19, which would scrap universal services and focus on only the most vulnerable.

The council said this was the only way it could continue to afford to provide social care, as it grapples with savings of more than £80m over the next four years.

A consultation on the radical changes is expected to open later this month and if approved the council could begin to put them in place from next year.

But campaigners have warned it would be “a failure to a whole generation” and end up costing more in the long-run.

Save Oxfordshire’s Children’s Centres campaigner Jill Huish yesterday told a meeting of councillors that she was “saddened and dismayed” by the plans.

And outside County Hall, East Oxford mum Tamsin Browning, said the centres were “a lifeline” for some parents.

The 38-year-old, who came with her eight-month-old son Tor, said: “They help keep children safe.

“The stress of having a newborn in indescribable and people do not understand that until they go through it themselves.

“That is why the support offered at children’s centres is just so valuable.”

Labour county councillor John Tanner was also cheered by protestors after giving a speech against the proposed closures.

He told the crowds: “We want them to remain open services. Bringing up children is hard and there is not a parent in Oxfordshire that does not sometimes fail.”

It was suggested by county council leader Ian Hudspeth that the recent refugee crisis could force the county council to make “difficult choices” between local services and helping people from war-torn countries, due to pressures on the authority’s finances.

Ellie Bard, an East Oxford mum who joined the protest with sons Raph and Ori, said: “The message we are getting is that if we get our money back we are taking away from others.

“It shouldn’t be like that.”

She added having Syrian refugee families come to Oxfordshire could be a welcome development to the campaign: “In a way I hope more families are let into Oxford. It makes it even more important that universal services are provided. The network could be a good way to welcome people to the country.”