Children living in Wood Farm, Oxford, will be celebrating when a long-awaited youth centre opens this week.

Thanks to the persistence of campaigners and help from Unipart in Cowley, the centre in Titup Hall Lane will be officially opened by East Oxford MP Andrew Smith on Friday, following a nine-year campaign.

The £30,000 centre is smaller than the state-of-the-art £500,000 centre originally hoped for, but campaigners say it is great start to making life in Wood Farm better.

Fears over joyriding and petty crime sparked the original campaign in 1993. The following year, 712 people petitioned the county council to provide better facilities to get young people off the streets.

Plans for a large centre collapsed when a bid for National Lottery money was rejected.

Objections also sparked a planning inquiry and the project failed to win approval.

Now a derelict county council building has been restored and equipped with computers, a coffee bar and kitchen. It also has a games and TV area. Two part-time workers will be employed. Ron Mansfield, project engineer at Unipart, said: "The building was planned for demolition, but with the group's enthusiasm it's been refurbished into an Internet caf-style meeting place.

"In the early days we brought young kids back to the Unipart buildings to help design their youth centre.

"It was disappointing that it never happened and those kids are now grown up."

Richard Bryant, who led the residents' campaign, said the centre's opening was "a testament to the fact that there are people in this community who refuse to give up".

"One reason it's taken so long is that Wood Farm is not seen as a priority area," Mr Bryant said.

"To be fair, there are far worse places.

"But it's only when you get the shock horror stories about joyriding and vandalism that politicians take notice. "

Thousands of pounds are still needed to secure the centre's future, as the county council says it cannot afford to pay for youth workers.

Campaigners will continue to collect funds to pay for the workers' posts.