RESIDENTS in three of the most deprived areas of Kidderminster are to be encouraged to get more involved in sport as part of a bid to improve health and reduce crime.

The creation of a new community sports worker, who will cover the Oldington and Foley Park, Sutton Park and Broadwaters areas, follows a Lottery grant of £88,916 to the district council.

The bid for funding, £4,000 short of the amount requested, is one of only four to be approved in the West Midlands and will run over a five-year period.

At a meeting of the Wyre Forest District Council's executive committee last Thursday, members gave the go-ahead to the project getting under way in January.

The worker will organise and co-ordinate sports, building on and linking with the Active Sport project. The worker will also develop activities for the Play On community group which has been seeking improving sporting opportunities for young people in the Oldington and Foley Park ward.

The project will also build on "hotspot sports", a pilot scheme run with the police and youth service over the summer which proved successful in tackling anti-social behaviour over the holiday period.

The main focus of the project will be girls and women, unemployed young men, young people and the Bangladeshi community.