Youngsters will soon be able to resume night time football training after Oxford City Council agreed to pay for the floodlight repairs.

Vandals destroyed the box at Barton United's training pitch, in Barton Village Road, Oxford, last month, and the city council initially said it did not have the money in this year's budget to pay for repairs. The club's pavilion was also broken into.

Local councillor Patrick Murray had said if the money could not be found he and other councillors for the area would dip into their own pockets to pay for the repairs.

However, following pressure from Mr Murray, the city council has now managed to find the funds.

Money, from either the next financial year's parks' or north east area committee's budgets, has been brought forward to meet the £750 cost of fixing the box and getting the lights working again.

Barton United club secretary Janet Rose said: "I am pleased. It is good news and I am hopeful it can be fixed quickly."

It is not yet known how long it will take to repair the box. But city council head park ranger Ian Thompson said the box would be picked up and sent away for repairs today or tomorrow and the problem fixed as quickly as possible.

He said: "We would like the lights back up and running as soon as possible, but this bit of equipment is key to the lights working.

"Unfortunately I cannot give a timescale of how long it will be at the moment."

Mr Murray is pleased the city council had been able to find the money, but angry that it had taken so long.

He said: "At the end of the day it is a relatively small amount of money for the council. I am disappointed and annoyed that it took the threat of councillors dipping into their own pockets to get this result.

"I could understand if we were talking about £10,000, but £750 is not that much.

"You would have thought they could have got on with it straight away, bearing in mind the impact it will have on young people.

"However, the important thing is that the money has been found.

"The sooner we can get the lights up and running again the sooner the kids can get out there and train."