CAMPAIGNERS fighting to keep East Oxford Community Centre free from council management will march across the city this month.

Oxford City Council told East Oxford Community Association last August it had a year to improve its management or face eviction from its Princes Street base.

It said it had “serious concerns” about how the association was being run.

Last week the council confirmed it would take over the running of the centre and the association needed to leave by September 1.

More than 20 people – including city councillors, trustees and residents – gathered at the centre on Monday night for the association’s extraordinary general meeting.

It was decided campaigners across the city will march from Temple Cowley Pools on Bank Holiday Monday, August 31, before meeting more marchers in Manzil Way at about noon and then heading towards the city centre.

They said they also planned to gather signatures for a petition against the association leaving the centre at Restore’s Elder Stubbs Festival on Saturday.

Founder of community organisation Ackhi Junie James, who rents space at the centre, said she was worried a reference group set up by the council to consult on the community centre’s future had been “cherry picked”.

But city councillor for St Clement’s Bev Clack told the Oxford Mail the council did not intend to exclude “concerned groups.”

She added: “I think there is some very positive stuff coming out of that reference group. It’s a wide range of people who are being drawn into that group.”

Former trustee Sarah Lasenby said there was “no reason” why the city council should take over the centre, based on the association’s management over the past 18 months.

She added: “The association should keep control. It is a charity. If you take it out of control it has no purpose and so will die.”

EOCA secretary Catherine Gundry added: “We have done everything we can. We have not had the support at all.”

Christine Simm, board member for culture and communities, said the council would take over the centre’s management to “improve the way it is run for the whole community”.

She added: “We are not closing down the East Oxford Community Association, we are removing the administrative burden and responsibilities of running a centre.”