CHURCH leaders are to act as guardian angels for youngsters on the streets of Wantage and Grove as part of a new late-night initiative.

Ten churches will be sending so-called street pastors out on the streets on Friday and Saturday nights to offer help and advice to revellers, some of whom will be worse the wear for drink.

Working in pairs, the pastors will patrol the town centres and other areas that attract the vulnerable, young and drunk.

Their role will include ensuring that people who have had too much to drink get home safely, either by ringing a friend or by walking them home, if considered safe for them to do so. They will also stand with those awaiting transport home.

Free flip-flops will be given to revellers who can no longer walk in high heels.

Neil Townsend, the pastor of Wantage Community Church, said: “Street pastors provide help where it can be constructive in small, practical ways, such as offering flip-flops to those who can’t walk in their heels.

“If people say they don’t want or need help, then we will go away.

“I don’t think we have a particularly horrendous crime rate here, but if this scheme helps to lower it further, all the better.”

It the first street pastor scheme launched in Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley region. The idea was started in Brixton in 2003.

Five years on, the project has spread to Manchester and Birmingham.

And if the scheme proves successful in Wantage and Grove, it could be rolled out across Oxfordshire.

Mr Townsend said: “I think it would be very positive for other towns in Oxfordshire to engage in this scheme.

“I have had discussions with people who are in the process of gathering support for their schemes.” “I am very optimistic that with the 10 local churches we have working together with care and compassion, we will see the atmosphere in Wantage and Grove improve on those two nights.”

Mr Townsend said the pastors would not take to the streets until October, after they had been through a 12-day training programme.

Thechurches taking part are: Wantage Community Church, Wantage Methodist Church, Wantage Christian Fellowship, Vale Elim in Grove, Wantage Baptist, Grove Free Evangelical Church, Grove Methodist Church, St John Vianney, Wantage, St John’s, Grove, and Wantage’s parish church SS Peter and Paul.

Vale of White Horse police commander Chief Supt Andy Boyd said: “It’s a great way for members of the community to work in partnership with the police to make town centres safer and help the vulnerable.”

Wantage mayor Pat-rick O’Leary said: “It’s very positive for Wantage.

“It has to be recognised that there are vulnerable people about in the early hours of the morning. This scheme brings a sense of reassurance.”

Frank Mahon, landlord of the Kings Arms, in Wallingford Street, Wantage, said: “It’s a great idea. Wantage and Grove need something at that time of night.”

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey said it was “all about the local community taking action”.

wantage@oxfordmail.co.uk