The organisers of an Oxford youth group have appealed to teenagers to "use it or lose it".

Committee members of The Barn Youth Project, in Greater Leys, say they will be forced to shut a weekly session for older youths if they do not attract more people through the door.

At one point organisers were attracting up to 30 teenagers to a regular Wednesday night session at The Barn in Nightingale Avenue.

But numbers have dwindled to just a couple of young people a week - leading to a decision to shut the club's doors temporarily in December.

The youth project's committee has now organised a relaunch event for later this month in a bid to revive interest in the facility.

Treasurer Susan Fitzsimons said: "We cannot keep doing it if we have got no kids coming through the door. To get more funding we need to get the youths in to prove to people it is a worthwhile project.

"We're giving it about three months. There's no point in running it if the kids do not want it. They need to know: use it or you'll use it'."

Sessions for teenagers had been running successfully for 13 or 14 years, until June, when a large number of children stopped attending, Miss Fitzsimons said.

Project secretary Gerry Webb said he believed teenagers had stopped coming to the club because there were IT problems, which meant the children could not use the Internet.

He said the club had since invested in two new computers, making four at the club, which also has a Nintendo Wii and a Sony PlayStation.

Other facilities include pool and air hockey tables, table football, table tennis and space to play football.

Mr Webb said: "The club brings the children together.

"It teaches them away from the street where the problems are, and they don't get tarred by any groups who tend to hang around purely for mischief.

"The club is their own little space."

Miss Fitzsimons said the committee had hired an inflatable bungee run for the relaunch event on Friday, February 22.

The club will continue to run free sessions from 7-9pm each Friday after that, she said.

Miss Fitzsimons said a Monday night club for younger children would continue, even if the Friday night session was forced to close.

To find out more about the Barn, call 07824 517683