A TREASURED resource for parents with young children in Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys has bounced back after a year of grave financial worry.

The Dovecote Project in Nightingale Avenue began the year £50,000 short of the cash needed to meet its annual running costs and facing the grim prospect of closing for good in September.

However, the after-school club and playscheme has now secured enough funding to survive and also has a burgeoning waiting list.

There are now plans in the pipeline to overhaul the garden and become a co-operative, and as the the icing on the cake staff have been nominated for an award at the Children & Young People Now Awards.

Family services co-ordinator Carol Richards said: "We are feeling really positive. We've got a waiting list and we are having to turn children away.

"To be shortlisted for this award is a big recognition. It's like the Oscars; the gold standard for everyone working with children and young people."

Dovecote has been shortlisted in the awards' Youth Work category for the initiative that has done the most to promote young people's personal development.

It runs a summer course, Dovecote Afloat, in which youngsters from the Leys explore the Thames and Oxford Canal on a 60ft narrowboat.

Mrs Richards said: "The project was absolutely fabulous this year. We had one girl who wasn't very confident who signed up for one week and ended up coming for the whole four; she just loved it. We are really developing people's awareness of the project now."

About 16 children aged four to eight attend the after-school club, many coming from neighbouring Windale Primary School via a newly-created walking bus.

The project is also one of four locally competing in the 'Tesco Bags of Help' initiative to win between £8,000 and £12,000 in money raised from the 5p bag charge, based on a public vote currently being counted. Over next spring the funds will be used to create a 'rainbow sensory garden' in memory of former Leys councillor Val Smith.

Mrs Richards said: "At the back of Dovecote there's a piece of land between two sheds where we will create this garden with flowers with all different colours and smells, and hopefully a water fountain. It's a place where kids can go and we will teach them how to grow things and look after them.

"There will be a nice big plaque for Val, who did such wonderful things for the community. For many years she was a very strong voice at Dovecote."

Local woman Alison Logan, 34, whose children Alfie, six, and Jayden, nine, joined the after-school club in April, said the group had gone from strength to strength in 2016.

She said: "My sons absolutely love it. They actually look forward to Tuesday when they can go. They do cooking and playing outside on the big climbing frame, and football. It's definitely helpful as a parent; it's not too expensive and they pick them up from school on the walking bus.

"It's at least doubled in size if not tripled since my boys started. It's definitely a plus because they're meeting other children from other schools as well now."