Cuts in the money available to Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) means a loss of funding for Children Centres including Bloxham’s Butterfly Meadows.

To offer such centres a breathing space in which to seek alternative funding OCC  agreed to set aside £1m to create a ‘one off’ fund to provide pump priming to support Children’s Centres. It was agreed that a cross party group of county councillors would consider maximum benefit of this fund and bring proposals back to Cabinet for decision.

The working group have considered the applications under the first round of bids against the criteria outlined in the guidance notes with recommendations to Cabinet.
This week the Cabinet RECOMMENDED to approve funding – totalling £163,000 – for the following bids:

1. Butterfly Meadows (Bloxham)
2. Carterton Town Council
3. Botley Bridges
4. Grandpont Nursery
5. St Nicholas Primary School
6. Sharing Life Trust

This does not mean the funding problem is resolved but it does offer some further time to address the funding issue which is good news