Hundreds of residents of an Oxford estate are being asked if they would use a community cafe and training centre, planned for the estate.

A total of 110 door-to-door and on-the-street spot surveys have been conducted in Barton over the last month, with 300 more to go.

The surveys gauge how much demand there is for the community cafe, which would serve up affordable food and drink.

The Barton Development Project is currently bidding for money to build the centre.

An outline application to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has already been approved and project co-ordinator Alan Foulkes is putting together a full application.

If successful, the cafe would be up and running in the estate's neighbourhood centre by January.

The cafe would try to encourage the eating of healthy food, but still provide more traditional fayre.

The cafe would also give people the chance to learn to cooking.

Feedback to the questionnaire has been positive, with 74 per cent of people saying they would use the cafe at least once a week, and 41 per cent saying they would use it twice a week.

Only nine per cent said they would not use the cafe at all. More than half said they would like to buy juice and smoothies there.

Only 20 per cent said they would buy fizzy drinks.

The hours of 10am-1pm proved to be the most popular times people said they would use the cafe.

Anthony Armitage, who is on the community cafe steering group, said: "I have experience with community nutrition and I think it is very important to try to encourage healthy eating.

"It is a case of providing good food at affordable prices - food that is not going to deter people. You have to strike the right balance. You have got to have a healthy compromise with foods people are familiar with."

Mr Foulkes added: "We will be carrying out more residents' surveys over the course of the next three or four months and asking people how they would use the cafe. The results so far indicate that there is a desire for a cafe in the area.

"Some community cafes work and some don't, so the more people we survey, the better."

He said the Community Development Project was hoping to find £83,620 to pay for a cafe manager and a chief trainer for three years.