A safety event involving 1,000 Oxfordshire schoolchildren will go ahead as planned after a new venue was found.

There were fears that the annual Junior Citizen programme for ten and 11-year-olds would have to be called off because of foot and mouth restrictions.

The usual venue near Dalton Barracks, Abingdon, is used for sheep grazing and it was feared that permission to move the livestock would not come in time for the three-week event which starts on June 11.

Co-ordinators appealed for a new site and agents for Exxon Mobile, which owns a site at the Milton Hill Business Park near Abingdon, offered the use of vacant buildings.

Southern Oxfordshire police area school liaison officer Pc Bill Russell said: "The agents have been most helpful.

"We have got up to 1,000 schoolchildren coming along. We are really pleased and obviously the children are too. We're looking forward to it and are confident it will go well."

The event, which involves Thames Valley Police, Oxfordshire County Council road safety team, Trading Standards, the fire service, Southern Electric and St John Ambulance, gives children seven scenarios that teach them important safety lessons.

Local builder Paul Carter, from Abingdon, constructs a mini building site, which is then manned by Abingdon College students, for construction site safety to be taught.

Derek Kidd, of Johnson Controls, which manages the Exxon Mobile site, said the company was delighted to be able to help out. He said: "We are very pleased to have this activity here."