THE Sweatbox Youth Centre in Wantage is to relaunch next month, a year after it was threatened with closure.

But the centre’s future is now looking bright after King Alfred’s Academy stepped in to help hire staff and pay for the building, after Oxfordshire County Council axed funding.

A £20,000 refurbishment began in August and will be finished before the relaunch party on Friday, December 9.

Headteacher Simon Spiers said: “We felt we had a moral obligation to support Sweatbox. As an important part of the local community our responsibility goes further than the school gates.”

The youth club, which is based at King Alfred’s East Site in Springfield Road, has more than 3,000 members.