Riversports clubs in Oxford are redoubling efforts to raise £500,000 to build a community boathouse to let more people use the city's waterways.

The clubs -- Falcon Rowing and Canoe Club, Hinksey Sculling School, Oxford Adaptive Rowers and Isis Canoe Club -- want to build a boathouse on the bank of the River Thames, near Donnington Bridge in Oxford.

East Oxford Action group was made a £2,000 grant to help pay for design plans and costings for the proposed boathouse.

Cake sales and grants from charitable trusts have raised about £10,000 towards the costs.

The scheme originally included the City of Oxford Rowing Club, and featured plans for a £2m boathouse to encourage disadvantaged children and adults to take up kayaking, rowing and sculling.

But the clubs were unable to agree on the management of the boathouse.

A revised scheme to create a riversports village, with each club delivering separate services, is under discussion.

Peter Travis, who is leading the boathouse project, said: "We have high hopes for the new year. We're optimistic that by spring we will see the project defined and submitted for funding to Sport England."

Projects to support the riversports village are already being developed alongside the boathouse plans.

The Active Schools programme, set up by the City of Oxford Rowing Club, helps young people start rowing.

A similar scheme -- helped by a £4,900 grant from the Gannett Foundation, the charitable trust run by the American owners of the Oxford Mail -- at Falcon is helping schoolchildren take up canoeing.

Mr Travis said: "We want schools to see the project as an extension of their sports facilities.

"We aim to be the first urban community in which state schools can take part in rowing or canoeing."