HUNDREDS of boys and girls playing football for Summertown Stars have demanded better facilities after being given a formal warning over only having one toilet and no changing rooms.

Visiting teams have complained and the Oxford Mail Girls League have issued a formal warning but the club said they were right to do so and that the situation was 'pretty desperate'.

The Five Mile Drive pitches are used by around 500 boys and girls each weekend but they are currently sharing one temporary toilet, which has had no water or lighting for most of the year.

Oxford City Council has invested £4.5m to refurbish sports pavilions across the city since 2012 but Five Mile Drive has yet to get a new facility.

Board member for leisure Linda Smith said a number of solution had been tabled and she was 'confident' of sorting the problem.

Club chairman, Gunnar Niels said: “The situation is pretty desperate.

"As a club we are proud of the numbers of young people who play for us, and in particular our success in encouraging football among girls.

"But they won’t come if basic facilities aren’t in place.

He added: "We are grateful to the council for all the discussions so far about possible ways forward, and also for the council’s cooperation with the Cutteslowe Park pavilion, our other major venue, but we need something now at Five Mile Drive, and a proper long-term solution in which the capital costs do not fall on the club and the families of our young players."

Mr Niels said they needed two toilets - male and female - a small kitchen to offer refreshments and a storage room.

The club’s older teams get to play at nearby Cutteslowe Park – a site which recently benefitted from an £800,000 pavilion refurbishment project made up of funding from Oxford City Council, Sport England and Football Foundation.

But the club has so many members it has to play its home games across the two different venues.

Liberal democrat councillor for the Wolvercote area, Steve Goddard, said: "The city council needs to find the resources to provide these children and other park users with the facilities they deserve and which teams elsewhere in the city take for granted - and they need to do it now.

Local resident Richard Lawrence-Wilson said the 480 households within 500 metres of the park needed a community hub to be included in the new pavilion.

He said: "The community has no meeting place or hub.

"Here is a great opportunity for the council to work imaginatively with local people and a range of users to provide a facility that meets a variety of different needs."

The city council's board member for leisure, Linda Smith, said she was confident a temporary solution would be found and that the club was 'pushing at an open door'.

Mrs Smith said: "On the issue of facilities to support people playing football on Five Mile Drive recreation park, you are really pushing at an open door.

"We recognise the need for facilities there for adequate toilets, adequate storage, and I'm confident we will be able to find a way of providing those.

"There are a number of possible solutions that have been talked about - it could involved a portacabin, a storage container or the camp store we have discussed with the club previously.

She added: "Let's carry on talking and I'm sure we will get there in the end and give the facilities needed so the club can carry on its excellent job getting our young people playing football there."