MORE families could end up needing support if the county council shuts down Abingdon’s children’s centres, it was warned as town leaders vowed to fight any proposed closures.

The town council passed a motion at a meeting last week with cross-party support to oppose closing down the two children’s centres in north and south Abingdon.

Oxfordshire County Council unveiled proposals last month to close down the 44 centres across the region as well as seven early intervention hubs.

A consultation has been launched looking at three options, including replacing them with eight family support centres and a new service for youngsters aged up to 19 targetting the most vulnerable.

However, Lib Dem county councillor for Abingdon South Neil Fawcett put a motion before the town council urging it to lobby the county to keep Abingdon’s two children’s centres open.

Mr Fawcett, who also sits on the town council, warned that if the centres are closed more families will end up needing more serious support.

He added: “Clearly the county council is in a difficult position financially, but it would be short-sighted to close them.

“But if they close once they’re gone, they’re gone and we won’t get them back.

“They bring services to a wide range of families, some of whom could end up in more serious need if the support is not there.

“That’s the big danger – in trying to target the really serious cases we will see more families in the long term become serious cases because that lower level support is not there to prevent it.”

Abingdon has two children’s centres, one in Dunmore Primary School, Northcourt Road, and the second in Caldecott Chase.

The proposal to shut all the county’s children’s centres is part of plans to save £8m and a consultation offering three options was published last month.

The first is replacing the children’s centres with eight family support centres and a new service for youngsters aged up to 19.

The second is continuing some services at eight centres but reducing outreach work while the third involves creating six centres and investing £1m of grant funding to support community-run services for families.

A final decision is expected to be made next year.

But the town council passed Mr Fawcett’s motion, with an amendment added by council leader Sandy Lovatt, at its meeting on Wednesday, September 30.

The council decided to delegate responsibility to responding to the consultation to its planning, highways and consultations committee chaired by councillor Mike Badcock.

Mr Badcock said that once the county council releases the consultation his committee will put together the town’s response.

He added: “We are waiting for the consultation to come through and it will be dealt with by the planning, highways and consultation committee.

“Until the county issues us with the questions and outlines what they are proposing, we don’t know the facts.

“But if push came to shove I would keep the one in south Abingdon as the one with the greatest need. I think it provides a very necessary service for people who otherwise fall through the net.

“They are happy to go to these centres because they are friendly and welcoming places. It is somewhere people who are the most vulnerable feel safe to go, that’s the great thing about them.”