Church groups are to help combat youth crime and anti-social behaviour in Didcot by employing a professional youth worker.

Churches Together in Didcot and District -- CTDD -- has pledged to raise £150,000 to fund a youth worker for five years to support the fully-stretched county youth service in the town.

The Rev Keith Nichols, Baptist minister, said: "We have advertised the post of a full-time 'detached' youth worker, which is the churches' contribution to the community.

"While the successful applicant will have an office or base, he or she will be active on the streets in different parts of the town among young people who do not necessarily attend a youth group."

The youth worker will co-operate closely with staff at the Youth and Community Centre in Park Road and other youth groups in an effort to channel young people's feelings of boredom which can lead to under-age drinking, crime and drug-taking. Churches of all denominations are contributing towards the cost of the new position. So far they have raised funding to cover two years, including a grant from a Harwell-based charity, the Lankelly Foundation.

Last month, Didcot Methodist Church held a Gospel Day including workshops and a concert by the American singer Lillian Boutte to raise money for the project.

Didcot Town Council has pledged a further £1,000, and CTDD has applied to South Oxfordshire District Council for a grant.

Mr Nichols said the problems created by some young people in the town were probably no worse than was being experienced in many other towns. But partly because of the rapid expansion of Didcot's population, there were severe pressures on the police especially from anti-social behaviour, he said.

The town council has been concerned about vandalism in and around the Civic Hall, where boundary walls have been demolished and windows smashed.