The move is part of a reorganisation of its 25 youth centres and one in Henley, which it supports financially, that will see funding instead focused on seven "hub" youth centres in Banbury, Bicester, Witney, Didcot, Abingdon and Oxford and six "satellite" centres in Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, Barton, Riverside, Berinsfield and Kidlington.
The aim is to cut staff and management costs and focus resources on services for the most vulnerable young people. The hub centres’ services will include teenage pregnancy support and crime prevention initiatives.
The council has made big society funding available for schools and community groups to take over the running of the council-run centres that face the axe.
But local youth services campaigners have said the new hubs are inaccessible for many young people and question whether the voluntary sector is a credible alternative to trained youth workers.
Emma Jones, a campaigner with Oxford Save Our Services, said: "Our county’s young people will still need safe spaces to go and support from trained staff.
"There are already volunteers helping to run youth centres, but they are trained, monitored and supported by youth workers. Without youth workers our children shouldn’t be left to unregulated volunteers."
She added that the closure of local centres, including those in Carterton, Eynsham, Chipping Norton, Bampton and Standlake, will leave young people with nowhere to go in many areas and could lead to an increase in youth offending.
This is a view shared by 13-year-old Nicky Wishart, who was questioned by anti-terror police in December after he planned to protest outside the Prime Minister’s constituency office in Witney.
At the Choose Youth rally in London earlier this year he said: "I use the Eynsham youth club three times a week. If it is closed I won't do anything – I'll just sit indoors, or hang around on the streets."
Oxfordshire County Council's deputy director for education and early intervention Jan Paine is hopeful that alternative providers can be found to run youth centres where funding is being withdrawn.
She said: "Positive discussions continue about ways of keeping open youth facilities that the council will not be able to fund as it previously has. Hopes are high that a significant number of these centres will have a future here in Oxfordshire. This is all about everyone doing the best they can within reduced financial circumstances."
