THE first round of Big Society cash looks set to help youth centres across Oxfordshire go it alone.

Yesterday the list of groups which have bid for a slice of the £600,000 pot was revealed for the first time.

Eight community groups are set to share £250,000 from Oxfordshire County Council to run youth centres that were previously under council control.

The groups are asking for one-off payments ranging from £6,000 to £65,000, and most want buildings transferred to them.

But after that, the organisations are on their own.

Big Society bids have been recommended for community groups to run centres at Wood Farm, Wheatley, Faringdon, Wolvercote, Carterton, Eynsham, Chipping Norton and Wantage.

Oxford’s Wood Farm Youth Action Group is set to get £6,000 to train volunteers to run services at its centre in Titup Hall Drive.

The estate’s full-time council youth worker post will be cut in September.

Councillor Liz Brighouse, who backed the bid, said the funding was good news, but was only the first step.

“We will try to go on raising money to keep a paid professional youth worker in the area,” she said.

“Youth work is extremely important. We have high levels of social deprivation.

“Children and young people are living in poverty and there is a desperate need to ensure they have somewhere to go.”

Under council savings plans, funding to youth centres across the county is being cut from September.

Seven new council-run hubs will be created – in East Oxford, Littlemore, Banbury, Bicester, Didcot, Abingdon, and Witney – along with six satellite centres, in Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, Barton, Riverside, Berinsfield and Kidlington.

In addition to the eight Big Society bids to be ratified by the council’s cabinet next Tuesday, the council is discussing Big Society funding for the Saxon Centre in Marston,Wallingford, Thame, Chiltern Edge and Henley.

The council’s cabinet member for children, families and young people, Louise Chapman, said she was confident projects would be sustainable once council cash ran out.

She said: “Some have parish council funding, others have fundraising strategies and others have plans to rent out buildings to other community groups when not in use as youth centres.”

She was confident other centres would be funded in future rounds, adding: “We are still actively working with local communities, and some of these bids you will see in the next round.”

In addition to former county youth centres, new schemes in Littlemore, Banbury and Uffington are also set for funding, along with money for the Abingdon Street Pastors Scheme.

In total, £282,000 of the council’s £600,000 Big Society Fund is set to be rubber-stamped next Tuesday.

So far, the authority has received bids worth £1.2m, but said about £750,000 did not meet the funding criteria which was aimed at helping community organisations run services the council will no longer fund.

There will be three further rounds this financial year.