Protesters fighting plans to build a £4m centre for jobless young people have taken their case to the District Auditor.

The proposed 50-bed Junction scheme, on the site of the Abbey Place car park, in Oxford city centre, is designed to get young unemployed and homeless people into work.

Plans for the centre, which will cost £4m to build and a further £4m to run for the first five years, have already received outline permission.

Funding for the scheme - the city council's Millennium Youth Project - will be shared between the council and the Government. But local residents claim the scheme is wasteful and inappropriate and have complained to the local government watchdog.

Pat Phipps, of Paradise Square, said: "What else can we do? We know that the case for locating the project here is wrong for everybody."

Robert Walters, of the residents' pressure group Roses (Residents of St Ebbes Society), said the project would bring an unwelcome influx of drug addicts and offenders and would drive out residents and businesses.

"The site is wrong," he said. "If it was sold it could raise up to £3m. The things that need to be done for young people could be done elsewhere more cheaply." But city council leader John Tanner said: "I think this is a great scheme. It is good news for the young unemployed and homeless people of Oxford.

And he said the location was ideal, close to the College of Further Education and easily accessible.

Story date: Monday 19 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.