Protesters inside a community centre set for demolition have been urged to “leave the games hall voluntarily”.

East Oxford Games Hall on Collins Street was due to be demolished on June 19 but the work has been delayed since the building was occupied by members of the public.

The occupation first started on June 2, with over 50 events including a DJ performance being held in the building.

Today, Oxford City Council has issued a statement which asks the protesters to leave as their protest “threatens to delay and increase costs to a vital project to deliver better community space and more affordable housing in this popular area.”

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The statement added: “These are spaces that the local area needs much more urgently than a dilapidated building with a high carbon footprint and outdated facilities.”

One campaigner against the re-development of the centre going ahead told the Oxford Mail: “Affordable sporting activity and spaces for collective conviviality are essential to community life and have been proven to be immensely beneficial for mental health and wellbeing.

“That the council should destroy the last of these spaces in the area is a total dereliction of duty and an act of social vandalism.”

A court hearing for their eviction is due to be held today (June 20).

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East Oxford Games Hall was a publicly owned sports centre that was closed by Oxford City Council in 2020.

The council now plan to turn the site into ‘shared ownership’ flats and the authority has been accused of ‘social vandalism’ by campaigners.

A council spokesman said: "We oppose the ill-conceived occupation of East Oxford Games Hall, which will threaten delay and increase costs to a vital project to deliver better community space and more affordable housing in this popular area.

"It is part of the East Oxford Community Centre redevelopment that will provide a community centre that has modern flexible spaces that are much more energy efficient, carbon friendly and sustainable in the longer term, plus 12 council homes at the main site in Princes Street and fourteen shared ownership homes on the games hall site in Collins Street.

"These are spaces that the local area needs much more urgently than a dilapidated building with a high carbon footprint and outdated facilities.

"We urge the protestors to leave the games hall voluntarily, but will take enforcement action if needed.

"Oxford is one of the most unaffordable places for housing in the UK, and we are investing in hundreds more council and shared ownership homes to tackle the problem.

"Council rent is typically around 40 per cent of private rentals, and shared ownership helps people like key workers, first-time buyers and under-40s onto the property ladder in a city they would otherwise be priced out of.

"This investment project is a rare opportunity to provide those homes in east Oxford, and to upgrade the community facilities to be modern, sustainable and adaptable for many years to come."