WORK will start on building Wallingford’s new youth centre in late September after the county council saved the project from its spending freeze.

The project to demolish the existing 1940s building and build a new children’s centre, office suite and youth club was thrown into doubt last month, when Oxfordshire County Council announced a review of its entire capital programme in anticipation of major budget cuts.

Council leader Keith Mitchell warned every project would have to be reviewed.

But County Hall has decided that the £1.2m youth centre will go ahead — as well as a £56,000 project to improve air quality in Wallingford town centre by installing speed humps.

The youth centre was given the go-ahead because £485,000 of funding, for a children’s centre for parents of toddlers on the same Clapcot Way site, had already been secured from central Government.

County councillor Lynda Atkins, who had warned it would be a “disaster” if the youth centre were not rebuilt, said: “It is extremely good news for the town. We have needed this for so long, and the current youth centre is simply not fit for purpose.”

Sixteen-year-old Naomi Higgins, who received Wallingford Town Council’s Young Citizen of the Year award earlier this year, said: “It has finally been finalised and, hopefully, there will be no more double thinking.

“Young people at the centre have taken part in the planning process, looked at the designs and had input in what it will look like. Now we can begin to get excited because we know it is going to be built and not fall through again.”

The new centre was given planning permission in January despite objections from local residents, who said the two-storey building should not be built in a residential street. Protesters complained to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Pensioner Ann Shepherd, who lives next door, said: “I am absolutely dreading it. There are a lot more things that should come first.

“With all the things that are wrong at the moment, with the roads and everything else, the building is perfectly usable and the centre does not even have that many members.”

County council spokesman Louise Mendonca said building work would start in September.

Other projects to go ahead will be phase two of building at Wantage’s Fitzwaryn School, work at The Net Young People’s Centre, Abingdon, the £5.8m redevelopment of Didcot Parkway station forecourt, and the Abingdon Museum project.

Mr Mitchell said: “Other projects will remain on hold until we know more about the levels of funding we will receive from central Government. We won’t know the detail until much later this year, so we have time to consider our priorities and to consult local people.

“People should be under no illusion that we all face some very difficult choices.”