MORE cuts may be made to the budget for children’s centres across Oxfordshire, it was warned yesterday.

Oxfordshire County Council’s children’s services director Jim Leivers said it was likely final proposals would not be put forward until next January at the earliest, warning that further cuts in addition to those signalled may be needed.

The Oxford Mail revealed last week 44 centres were under threat as part of a county council shake-up to make more than £6m in savings agreed in February.

The centres offer activities for under-fives, but council leaders are planning to create a single service for youngsters aged up to 19 that will also include seven early intervention hubs.

The council’s cabinet yesterday agreed to talk to stakeholders over the summer about the changes, but a public consultation will not begin until September.

Mr Leivers told the meeting: “We need to be aware of the environment we are walking in to over the next few months because it may be that decisions taken in February are not enough.”

But Jill Huish, who uses the children’s centre in Britannia Road, Banbury, said she would now spearhead a revived campaign to save the children’s centres.

Former chef Ms Huish, 33, who has a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter, said: “Focusing on children from birth to five is vital. If the children’s centres close there will be an enormous range of services that will be lost and I do not want to see that happen.”

She added campaigners would now create petitions to begin building support and urged people to join the Facebook group Save Our Children’s Centres: Oxfordshire.

Cabinet member for children and families Melinda Tilley said it was “heartbreaking” to be faced with cutting children’s centres.

She added: “I don’t get up in the morning and think ‘who can I stick it to today’ but it is so difficult to find these savings. We want to give everyone a chance to have their say and in the meantime we will reach out to all our partners to see what they can do.”

A previous proposal to close children’s centres in 2013 was scrapped after 15,000 people and most of the county’s MPs objected.

A cross-party panel at the council has conducted the first major review of centres since they were launched and said they should be prioritised on local need as well as location. Closures have not been ruled out, and there could be job losses among more than 430 staff.