Playgrounds, soup kitchens and help centres are among the city projects in line to receive more than £1.6m of council funds.

The money is being divided by Oxford City Council between 70 organisations that have proved themselves to be vital to the wellbeing of the city.

Vulnerable people, arts education programmes, and neighbourhood projects are amongst the groups to receive the cash from the council's executive board this year.

The successful applicants include the organisers of the Cowley Road Carnival, which, after last year's success, will receive £13,500, and Oxfordshire Women's Aid, which has been allocated £14,000 to help victims of domestic violence and abuse.

Blackbird Leys Adventure Playground stands in line to receive £18,500, so it can continue to offer after-school care and activities for children.

Alston Quammie runs the centre for 5 to 16 year olds at the Blackbird Leys Community Centre.

He said: "We know how tight budgets are at the moment, so we are really pleased that our funding was not cut. It will go to the running costs of the centre, and providing an environment for children where they can learn arts and crafts, cook, play indoor and outdoor games and interact with other children.

"The city council is our main funder. Without the money we would close, so this is great news."

Another of the successful applicants was Icolyn Smith, who runs the Church of the God of Prophecy soup kitchen at Littlemore Community Centre and will receive £5,000.

Mrs Smith said: "I started the soup kitchen 17 years ago, when I worked for the city council as a home care assistant. I was shocked to walk around the city and see so many people in need but no-one offering help or taking care of them."

A total of 84 applications for funding was received by the council for consideration in November 2007, of which 14 were turned down.

The recently opened Baby Cafe Bus based at Headington was one of them. The organisation applied for £16,000 worth of funding, but was rejected, because of a lack of evidence supporting the need for the service.

Counsellor and project leader Julie Osbourne who runs the 18 seater bus, which offers advice about breast-feeding to new mums, believed that without the funding the future looked bleak for the bus.

She said: "We have some funding from the county council, but not enough.

"It's quite upsetting because this is a vital service for new mothers, which not just offers advice, but also somewhere for people to go and get support at what can be a lonely time.

"As things stand we can run the bus for about another nine months."

Councillor Altaf Khan, executive member for a safer city, said: "It's not easy to have to make difficult decisions between all the worthy causes in the city.

"However the pot of money, although large, is finite. The council always receives more applications for grants that we have money available to give.

"But Oxford City Council does provide substantially more financial support through its grants that most other local authorities."