Community leaders in the Botley area of Oxford have appealed for the help of children and families to help address the lack of community and play facilities.

Organisers of the North Hinksey Parish Plan, which covers Botley, are looking for residents’ suggestions to help shape the area over the next 15 years and deal with an influx of new families.

Top priorities include the lack of play facilities in the area and how a new community facility could be incorporated into the Vale of White Horse District Council’s plans to redevelop the dated West Way Shopping Centre and Elms Parade.

Planning applications have been submitted for 150 homes in Tilbury Lane and 130 homes on land south of Lime Road.

Concern has been raised that services such as doctors’ surgeries and schools could be stretched to breaking point.

Parish plan chairman Jenny Barker said: “This is the people’s chance to have a say on what they would like to see in the parish.

“We want to encourage the children to come along, and their parents, because they’re the ones who are going to be most affected in the future.

“We’ve got very little entertainment up here. We haven’t got a cinema, or a youth club or a community centre so it’s difficult for people to meet socially.

“We would like to develop some kind of community facility from this and ask people what they would like to see offered in that facility.”

The plan has already started to have an impact on the community after organisers helped establish a city-wide business breakfast club in North Hinksey, which started on Tuesday.

The idea came about after Mrs Barker identified more than 200 businesses in the locality, which contains Seacourt Tower and Minns Business Park.

To entice families to get involved organisers are holding a Doctor Who look-alike competition at its consultation event at Seacourt Hall on Saturday, February 28.

The event will see prizes given for the child who looks most like the Doctor or a character from the BBC1 series.

Mrs Barker said: “The Doctor Who competition is the fun element because we’d like younger people to make their voices heard too.

“If we’re going to get bigger and have more people we need to make sure we have the facilities to cater for it.

“We’re very interested in what people will have to say on the redevelopment of the West Way Centre too.

“Until we started the plan no-one knew how many organisations there were in the parish, but the thing is there’s nothing really for youngsters and teenagers.

“That’s the big problem we’re trying to address.”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk