TWO Oxfordshire youth centres could be saved next week as schools get set to take control of the buildings.

Oxfordshire County Council will rubberstamp plans to transfer the freeholds of Wantage and Eynsham youth centres at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The schools will take on the running costs and are working with the county council to find funding for youth workers at both sites.

The Sweatbox is based at King Alfred’s School in Wantage, which currently rents the building from the council.

Headteacher Simon Spiers said: “What they are doing is common sense. It takes us closer to offering youth activities in the evenings.

“It also gives us a bit of security that the building is ours rather than have this island in the middle of the school.”

The school has also bid for Big Society cash from the county council to help run the youth centre.

The council currently funds 26 youth centres but will stop funding 13 of them to save £119m after Government cuts. The rest will be turned into early intervention hubs and ‘satellite centres’.

Eynsham Youth Centre, in Back Lane, is set to be handed to Bartholomew School which plans to use it during the day and provide evening youth activities.

Headteacher Andrew Hamilton said: “The need for such services in an area such as Eynsham is paramount.”

Both King Alfred’s and Bartholomew have been working with local partners and councillors to develop a sustainable business plan.

Gordon Beach, chairman of Eynsham Parish Council, said: “It is a step in the right direction and I think we would be very disappointed if we could not find a way of continuing to provide a youth provision in the village.”

The cabinet will also hear about discussions over ways schools could help back youth centres in Chipping Norton, Thame, Chiltern Edge and Wheatley.

Jan Paine, the county council’s deputy director of education and early intervention, said: “We’re delighted that progress is being made to provide a sustainable future for young people in two more areas and we’re working hard on the rest.”

But a youth worker, who did not want to be named, said: “Schools will not be able to maintain them at the level these centres are currently working at. But we would rather have some youth work than just lose it completely.”

bwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk