YOUNGSTERS’ hopes of a new youth club on their city estate have been handed an £8,800 boost.

The Rose Hill Junior Youth Club project was given the cash by Oxford City Council this week and now hopes to open its doors in November.

Organisers still need to raise a total £13,700 to fund activities at Rose Hill Community Centre for the first year.

But they are confident the council cash will help trigger the extra money from other grant bodies.

The new club, supported by local police officers, will cater for seven to 11-year-olds on the estate, one of the most deprived in the country. Sessions are already running for teenagers.

Methodist Church deacon Stephen Richardson, chairman of the junior youth club committee, said: “There is nothing on the estate for them.

“This will allow our young people to grow in confidence, develop their social skills and self esteem.”

The club is set to run a weekly after- school session at The Oval centre, including sports, arts, crafts and money management. It will be run by the Oxfordshire Association for Young People.

Two taster sessions were held this summer to ask children what activities they wanted and Mr Richardson said they would shape the future of the club.

He added: “We will keep monitoring the club all the time and it will be shaped by what they want.

“We have some ideas from the young people already and youngsters will be on the committee so they will be part of it.

“It is the estate’s youth club and it belongs to the young people.”

Oxford Citizens Housing Association community worker Fran Gardner said the city council grant would get the club up and running for the first year.

She added: “We have to secure more funding, which is not easy given the cuts, but we have two applications we are working on.

Insp Andy Storey, who is in charge of policing Rose Hill, said: “It is no coincidence that where young people are fully engaged in activities through the holidays and in the evenings we have lower levels of crime and antisocial behaviour. This is very positive news.”

The city council grant was made by its south east area committee.