A £1.2m YOUTH centre plan that just weeks ago secured council funding despite a wave of cuts has been plunged back into jeopardy.

This time it is Whitehall cuts which could derail the long-awaited project in Clapcot Way, Wallingford.

Young people have long called for the youth centre, housed in a crumbling 1940s Land Army kitchen, to be demolished and replaced by a new building.

Funding appeared to have been secured from Oxfordshire County Council and the Department for Education, and in July the council announced the project would go ahead, agreeing £591,000 of funding despite a county-wide spending freeze on other capital projects.

But now the Government is reviewing its £485,000 share of the funding for a children’s centre, offering parents childcare advice, which would also be part of the project.

The scheme would also include a two-storey office block.

Independent county councillor Lynda Atkins said: “If it gets withdrawn, the whole scheme would collapse.

“The county council would not be able to make up the difference, and you would not get the synergies that come with combining the two facilities on one site. I do not think you could build the youth centre without the children's centre with half the money.”

She said: “Whether it is going to happen or not, there is nothing anyone in Wallingford can do any more.

“All I can say is the reasons the county council decided to go ahead with the project also apply to central Government: it represents good value for money by combining two facilities on the same site.”

The town’s Conservative MP, Ed Vaizey, has written to the Tory Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, to put Ms Atkins’ case.

County council spokesman Louise Mendonca said County Hall expected ministers to announce their decision in the next few weeks.

She said: “Until we know what their decision is, it is difficult to know what will happen with the whole project.

“If they withdraw the funding, we will have to look at it and see how we can move forwards.”

Neighbouring resident Lee Upcraft, of Clapcot Way, said: “I do not really want the Government funding to be withdrawn — the existing youth centre is an eyesore and needs replacing.

“However Oxfordshire County Council’s efforts to use this funding as an excuse to build prestige new office accommodation in our residential street is inappropriate.

“If the withdrawal of Government funding is what it takes to make the council remove this element, and of course cancel the whole project, then I will consider that a suitable outcome, if not an ideal one.”

Other residents have also hit out at the design for the centre.