CHILDREN living on one of the country’s most deprived estates will find out on Monday if a proposed youth club has taken a step closer to becoming reality.

The Rose Hill junior youth club would cater for seven to 11-year-olds on the Oxford estate and also provide a range of after-school activities.

Volunteers need to raise £13,700 to get the project off the ground.

An application for an £8,800 Oxford City Council grant will be debated by councillors on Monday evening.

If the grant is approved, the club’s organisers will still have to raise another £5,600 to cover the running costs for the first year of the project, which would be based at Rose Hill Community Centre, in The Oval.

Methodist Church deacon Stephen Richardson, who is chairman of the junior youth club committee, said: “This is absolutely vital to Rose Hill.There’s a senior youth club that is well supported and a great asset, but no youth facilities for the younger age group.”

Mr Richardson said he hoped that approval of council funding would help the committee to secure grants from other organisations.

The club would be run by the charity Oxfordshire Association for Young People.

During the school summer holiday, two taster activity sessions were held for the children, including football skills workshops with Oxford United players, to encourage them to come along and suggest what activities they wanted at the proposed club.

The city council’s south east area committee will decide whether to approve the grant at its monthly meeting, which takes place at Blackbird Leys Community Centre, in Blackbird Leys Road, at 6.30pm.

Members of the public are welcome to attend.