The news that services previously offered by Witney Children’s Centre will be picked up by a former employee will be welcomed by families in and around the town.

Places where children have the opportunity to engage with others their age and develop both educationally and emotionally are vital.

And it’s not just the children who benefit from interacting with their peers. It is all too easy for parents with young children to feel isolated in those early years.

When that isolation is coupled with the hefty task of facing a wide range of challenges, often for the first time, the problem is multiplied.

It is unfortunate that cuts in funding and a national tightening of the purse strings has the occasional effect of depriving communities of the services and facilities they care so deeply about.

But it is the way in which communities choose to respond to these issues that makes them, and Witney is showing, and has shown time and time again, that it is ready to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Witney will not let its children and families down, whether that be through Little Steps or the work of the other group comprising the representatives from the town’s churches, council and youth charity Base 33.

It is a town that responds to problems not with defeat - but by offering solutions.