A YOUTH club in North Oxford is getting a new fundraising campaign on the road.

Wolvercote Young People’s Club is bidding to raise £30,000 to buy a new minibus.

Organisers said the minibus is much needed to replace the one which has been used by the club for 14 years.

The club is hoping donors will be able to help it out in its bid to get the new bus by May.

Fundraising manager at the club Amanda Chapple said: “The bus is becoming increasingly unreliable and unsafe.

“It is no longer watertight and quite often it won’t start.

“We reach out to 250 young people in the North Oxford region. We go right down to Jericho and pick up people through the week.

“But we also need the bus for short trips we provide for young people. It is really well utilised and without it we would struggle.”

Ms Chapple said the bus, which is used around three times a week, would need to seat 17.

She said: “It is a big old sum. We have got an AGM in May and it would be fantastic if we could say by then that we had got enough money – I don’t know if that’s feasible or not.

“We would love a local business or maybe an ex-member to get involved because the club has been around for so long.”

Eric McDonogh, chairman of Wolvercote Young People’s Club, said: “To continue our minibus service for our local young people we are asking our community for help and support in making this large capital purchase.

“The minibus is a vital tool in helping us reach out to the young people of the area, making sure they travel safely across the local area and indeed on trips and events we deliver further afield.

“Helping us acquire a new minibus provides a great opportunity for a local business to make public their support of our charity and we are open to co-branding ideas and other methods of making sure that anyone who helps us out gets some help in return.”

Wolvercote Young People’s Club was formed in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War under the name of Wolvercote Boys’ Club.

It originally met at Upper Farm House in St Peter’s Road. In 1959, with cash from the Government and Oxford City Council, the new club premises were built and Upper Farm House demolished.

To donate, text WYPC11 and the amount you can pledge to 700 70.