THE future of an empty area within a leisure centre will be decided by councillors next week.

Part of the Willowbrook Leisure Centre in Didcot has been left vacant since January when a playgroup moved out after 15 years.

Leisure centre providers SOLL Leisure now want to takeover the extra space.

Youth group TRAIN and the South Oxfordshire Food and Education Academy, a charity which offers education and training to people in Oxfordshire, have also both expressed an interest in running activities in the empty space.

Councillor Simon Hewerdine, who represents the Didcot Ladygrove Ward, is calling for Didcot Town Council to take the area on as a community centre.

In a motion submitted to an extraordinary general meeting of the council taking place on Monday, Mr Hewerdine is calling for the council to support his plans to create a new facility called Didcot Ladygrove Memorial Hall in honour of the town's contribution to the First World War.

The motion says: "with new homes planned in the Willowbrook's locale and limited community rooms available to groups of all sizes... Didcot Ladygrove Memorial Hall would constitute a valuable new local facility, available at reasonable cost to all community groups, particularly smaller ones that are currently without a suitable facility."

Mr Hewerdine claims that the centre would be used by parents, local clubs and societies and youth groups

Councillors will debate the motion, and the other options for the leisure centre space, at 7.30pm in the All Saints Room of Didcot Civic Hall on October, 16.