MORE than 3,500 people have teamed together to fight cuts to a school sports scheme.

Youngsters involved in the North Oxfordshire Sports Partnership will now join other UK schemes in protesting to Downing Street on Tuesday.

The partnership oversees the district’s 18,500 children in 56 schools, and runs teacher training, sports activities and competitions for ages five to 19.

Supporters say it has boosted participation in sport from 25 to 90 per cent.

But the partnership has seen its entire £162m budget cut by the Government.

More than 3,500 people have added their names to a petition, including 2,394 young people from schools including West Kidlington Primary and Southwold Primary, Bicester.

Pupils at Blessed George Napier School in Banbury are also backing the petition.

Sixth-former Roisin Welby, 18, from Fair Close, Bicester, said: “We want the Government to understand how important the partnership is, and think of another way around it.

“We aim to show the Government how many people will be affected. The sports partnership has given so many opportunities to so many different pupils.”

Zoe Ward, a teacher at North Kidlington Primary, said: “I do not see how the high level of sports achieved by us can continue when the funding is withdrawn.

“So much in life can only be achieved when there is the funding to support it.”

The campaign comes after Labour leader Ed Miliband read a letter out in Parliament from Jo Phillips, school sports coordinator for Chipping Norton, complaining about cuts to the partnership. In the letter, the teacher said: “I am devastated to witness the potential demise of this legacy with the sweep of a pen.”

Mrs Phillips, who has been a PE teacher for 28 years and a school sports coordinator for eight, said said: “I really can’t believe that such a fantastic programme is being cut.”

Mr Miliband read the letter to Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron during last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions.

He called the cut “daft”, adding: “Since 2002, we have seen an increase from 25 per cent to 90 per cent in the number of kids doing more than two hours of sport a week.”

He called for Mr Cameron to make a U-turn as soon as possible.

But Mr Cameron said the partnership simply did not work and insisted: “Only two in every five pupils play any competitive sport regularly in their school. That is a terrible record.”

He said the money would now go directly to schools, adding: “That is the way that they will make a real difference.”

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton added: “We’re giving heads the freedom to make more of the established network of school sport partnerships, but without being tied down by centralised targets and a bureaucratic blueprint set by ministers.”