THE first community-run children's centre in the county is thriving one year on from its launch.

Cholsey children's centre was opened by volunteers in May last year at Cholsey Pavilion.

As children's centres were under threat across the county because of Oxfordshire County Council funding cuts, Cholsey parish council decided to launch its own, known as the Happy Hub.

One year on, county councillor for Benson and Cholsey Mark Gray said the hub's lead should be followed by communities around the county.

Mr Gray, also Cholsey Parish Council chairman, and and soon to be appointed to the county council's cabinet, said: "The Happy Hub has had a great first year and is going from strength to strength.

"There are now 200 visitors a week with six sessions a week for the under-fives.

"There is also a session for older children who can come along with their siblings.

"The sessions are drop-in stay and play sessions and the hub recently got a lottery grant of about £7,500 for new play and art equipment."

Mr Gray said the children's centre, led by team leader Liz Lee, was backed by an annual grant from the parish council of £17,000 a year.

He added: "Communities can be very strong organisations if they have people who pull together.

"I think what Cholsey has achieved with the Happy Hub is a good example to other communities across the county – we will have a party to celebrate our anniversary next month.

"There are now 34 community-led centres across the county and Cholsey was the first.

"Of course there are some statutory functions that volunteers can't provide – they can step in to certain areas but they can't do everything themselves."

When volunteers can't provide services themselves they refer visitors to other services and agencies, including debt support and the Citizens Advice Bureau.

There are six main sessions a week, backed by 45 hours a week staffing at the pavilion and Ms Lee has been the manager for the past eight months.

The county council withdrew funding for 31 of 44 children’s centres and two of seven early intervention hubs in April but set aside £1m transition funding to help community groups keep children's centres going.

Mr Gray's new role in the cabinet will oversee community hubs across the county including libraries and children's centres.

Wallingford Children’s Centre is run from the site of a former evangelical church in Wigod Way.

The town council led an initiative to build the £300,000 Wigod Centre and it opened in 2014 as a children’s centre and base for the town’s youth club after the former youth centre in Clapcot Way closed.

Town councillor Ros Lester said the town council was matching funding it had received from the county council to help keep the children's centre open.

She added: "The centre will now be run as a family centre but it won't be able to provide all the advice services it once did - they will be based in Didcot."