SUPERMARKET staff will swap their day jobs to become decorators to give Blackbird Leys Youth and Community Centre a facelift.

Employees from the Midcounties Co-operative will step in for a day next month to transform the tired 1960s Blackbird Leys Road centre into a brighter, more user-friendly space.

The facelift is the first stage of plans to draw in more people, after an informal questionnaire at the Leys Fair showed many had never been in.

A number of community groups meet in the Jack Argent Room, including two over-50s bingo clubs, a choir, the parish council, and a group for people with mental health issues.

Centre administrator Paula Williams said: “It is a well used centre but parts of it are looking a little tired and in need of redecor-ation.

“Midcounties offered to help us and we’re really grateful to them.”

She added: “It might be a council building but the community centre is for the community.

“If the community are not using it, what’s the point of having it?”

Up to 20 staff from the Midcounties Co-operative will step in with paint brushes to spruce up the Jack Argent Room on Tuesday, November 16.

It is part of the organisation’s colleague volunteer programme, where staff give three days as part of their work time to a good cause.

Offenders on community service will also paint the main entrance and stairways.

Lindsay Roche, community co-ordinator at Midcounties, said: “We have got a team together who are keen to give something back to the community.”

Services at the centre include the Credit Union, Blitz IT hub, a youth centre, family support organisation Home Start, and the Soundworks Recording Studio.

Louisa Dean, spokesman for Oxford City Council, which owns the centre, said: “We are working closely with community groups to improve the inside of the building.

“We want to make the building a more usable and accessible facility for all in the community, and we hope this work will be the starting point.”