DROP-IN sessions at an independent family centre will be cut to just one day a week due to a major shortage of cash.

Donnington Doorstep had already had to cut a number of services – including Saturday drop-in sessions – after a £60,000 yearly grant from Oxfordshire County Council ended last March.

Now hundreds of families have been left 'devastated' after further funding pressures have forced the centre to cut the drop-in service from five days a week to 10am to 1pm on Wednesdays.

Alex Mann, who uses the centre with her sons Otis, two, and Xavi, four months, said she did not know where else she would turn.

The 37-year old from Cowley has a paralysed right arm, which limits her ability to shop and cook for her children and which causes her severe pain at times.

She said: "I am absolutely devastated.

"I really do not know what I am going to do, there is nowhere else for me to go.

"The future is that I will be trapped at home with my arm in agony.

"My kids absolutely love it, it is like a second home to them."

The team that runs the centre has appealed for people to help out and raise enough money to bring the sessions back six days a week.

The cut to one day a week comes into effect on the week commencing January 30.

About 1,600 parents and children use the drop-in services each year, which cost £360 a day to run.

Donnington Doorstep chairwoman of trustees Christine Simm said: "The drop-in is the heart of Doorstep. For more than three decades we have offered a friendly welcome, fantastic play opportunities, fun, delicious food and support to local families.

"Friendships made at Doorstep last a lifetime, strengthening family life and our communities.

"We are now facing the greatest crisis we have ever confronted.

"I would appeal to all parents, grandparents and carers who have come to Doorstep and loved it to get behind us in our campaign to save Doorstep drop-in.

"The alternative is too devastating to contemplate."

Donnington Doorstep family centre opened in 1984 and runs Donnington Pre-School for two-to-five year olds, as well as its drop-in service.

Donnington Playgroup has run for more than 30 years and has been managed by Donnington Doorstep since summer 2013.

The organisation will hold a crisis annual general meeting on Wednesday from 7pm to 8pm at the Townsend Centre in Donnington Bridge Road where the issue will be discussed.

County council spokesman Owen Morton said: "It is nearly a year since the council’s service contract with Donnington Doorstep – an external provider – came to an end.

"All service contracts are regularly reviewed, which means both providers of services and the nature of the services they deliver are always subject to change.

"The council is putting in place a brand new children’s service which will continue to meet the needs and aspirations of children at risk of abuse and neglect, and ensure families in need of extra help are identified at an early stage."

To make a donation and help support the group and its services visit donnington-doorstep.org.uk/support-us