Councillors have decried the lack of youth provision in Wallingford as calls for better facilities gather pace.

The town has not had a youth centre since Wallingford Youth Club shut its doors in September 2011, with the building on Clapcot Way condemned and demolished, and many have raised concerns there is little on offer for youths and teenagers.

A roundtable discussion was held to discuss the issue on Tuesday (June 20) by OX10 Community Centre, a not-for-profit organisation set up with the intention to create a new community space in the town centre, and was attended by town councillors, church representatives, Wallingford School, and Matthew Barber, Thames Valley’s police and crime commissioner.

With Cholsey Youth Club, which re-opened briefly in Autumn 2022, now shut for the foreseeable future, and Benson Youth Club closed for some time, OX10 is exploring what it can do fix the issue with youth provision in Wallingford.

Some councillors have backed its plans to improve provision for young people.

Councillor Katharine Keats-Rohan, a town councillor who also represents Wallingford on South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “It certainly needs improving. There’s very little provision at all. It’s a hole.

“It is very important that you have things provided for young people and that they are things you have worked on with them.

“That work I am hoping will start soon.

“We did have a youth centre at one point but frankly it’s like a lot of things over the last few years. Services have been cut back and back and this was one of the casualties.”

Cllr Keats-Rohan said it was a ‘possibility’ that the lack of youth provision was linked to a rise in reported anti-social behaviour incidents in Wallingford.

She said: “I would not want to pontificate on this because these things are always multifaceted, but I think it would help if there was a bit more youth provision.”

Mayor Dan Beauchamp said: “There is a lot that does happen, but the feeling is that there is a percentage of kids who are being missed because they are not necessarily the ones who are going to use the kind of things on offer.

“We have got an agreement that we are going to carry on this conversation.”

Cllr Steve Beatty said: “There’s nothing in Wallingford for young people and there is hardly any employment. That is just the case with small market towns.

“Having a youth centre means you would have somewhere to socialise. If young people can get together in a good place, you will get good outcomes, but if they are meeting on a park bench late at night, you are likely to have bad outcomes.”