YOUNG people from one of Birmingham’s most deprived neighbourhoods warned ministers that there were too few sports facilities in their neighbourhood, in a face-to-face meeting at the House of Commons.

Hodge Hill youngsters asked sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe for help getting a new swimming pool for the area.

The ten young people, aged 15 to 18, went to the Commons to report on a visit to Sweden during the summer, as part of a youth exchange programme.

They learned how Sweden encouraged residents to take part in sport.

More than half the country’s population takes part in sporting activity on a regular basis, compared with just 13 per cent of adults in Hodge Hill.

But they also took the opportunity to ask for support in their campaign to get better facilities for Hodge Hill, as they met Mr Sutcliffe and MP Liam Byrne (Lab, Hodge Hill).

Speaking at the meeting in a Commons committee room, 17-year-old Imran Khan, from Saltley, said: “In Birmingham it might take you an hour to get to the nearest swimming pool or leisure centre.

“But in Sweden it was a ten-minute walk. It makes it much easier.”

Community group Commpact, supported by Birmingham City Council, is working with young people in Hodge Hill to improve sporting facilities in the area.

As well as helping people keep fit, sport could encourage integration by bringing people from different ethnic backgrounds together, the ministers were told.

Mr Sutcliffe told the meeting he would accept an invitation from Birmingham Council’s cabinet member for sport and culture, Martin Mullaney, to discuss how the Government could help improve facilities in the city.