FREE classes are being offered to youngsters as part of an initiative to get communities playing more sport.

Children aged seven to 13 can take part a range of sports such as football, rounders, baseball, cricket, basketball and rugby.

Sessions take place every Monday at Dukes Meadow, in Barnards Green, and every Thursday at Victoria Park, in Malvern Link, throughout June and July. Both run from 5.30-6.30pm.

Supervising each class alongside professional coaches will be volunteers recruited and trained as part of a £150,000 project to improve communities through sport.

Della Price, Malvern Hills District Council's community activator, said the idea was to train people who will then be able to offer sports to youngsters in their neighbourhoods.

"Hopefully, it will bring communities together," she said.

Langland, Poolbrook, Malvern Priory, Upton, Ripple and Suckley have all been identified as target areas for the project.

They were chosen after MHDC's Community Safety Audit identified them as having relatively high crime levels.

The three-year project has been funded by Sport England, the Rural Transport Partnership, which is providing a minibus and Communities Against Drugs.

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer should call 01684 862359, or attend one of the sessions.