COMMUNITY groups were granted an 11th-hour reprieve after city bosses revised plans to shake up leasing arrangements.

Oxford City Council had originally put forward plans to change the leasing arrangements for community groups that use the 20 community centres.

However, the controversial plans proposed the five organisations that currently hold over leases with protected status would have to pay rent on 25 years leases.

But, culture and communities leader Christine Simm said that although that rent would be reimbursed, the objections to these changes were so “serious” the current proposals had been set aside.

She told the city’s scrutiny committee: “The future is always uncertain, external circumstances can change, financial constraints experienced by local authorities could change.

“Future colleagues might not feel they needed to honour that undertaking.”

Of the 20 centres, five are run in-house by the council, two are independent and the other 12 are managed by community associations, while the Barton Neighbourhood Centre is part council-run and part community-run Under the plans the eight that currently have licences to occupy will have their current leases terminated, with new 25-year rent-free leases drawn up, with rolling break clauses.

The five groups that have unprotected tenancies will enter into discussion with the council’s executive board over their new leases.

The new plans will be put before the city council’s executive board next week.