Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe wants Bradford to be the United Kingdom's leader in opening up their sports facilities to the general public.

Minutes after officially declaring the £2.2m St Bede's sports hall open, the Bradford South MP said: "I want to see facilities like this opened up to the whole of the community and used to the maximum amount - and not just by those that can afford to pay for it.

"We are looking at that in terms of trying to maximise the benefit of sports facilities, and I want Bradford to lead the way, and I am sure it can."

He said that such a move would not just have benefits for the young or middle aged, adding: "We have an older population and we need to keep them more active to keep them out of hospital and keep them out of doctor's surgeries."

With work having already taken place at Hanson School and work already taking place at Tong and Buttershaw, Sutcliffe said of the long sought-after facility at St Bede's: "In the competitive world that we are in today where children have their computers and their Wiis, and that sort of thing, what we want to do is offer world-class sporting facilities and encourage them, and this is a world-class facility.

"Yes it is for school sport, but it is a world-class facility and there are also the classrooms upstairs and the fitness suite and opportunities for other sports to be played here."

Julian Higginson, head of PE at St Bede's, said: "The sports hall has been in use for eight or nine weeks and we have already had climbing and other outdoor activities, basketball, badminton, cricket, five-a-side football and volleyball.

"And in the fitness room there is £25,000 worth of equipment, and we also have a studio for table tennis, outdoor education and martial arts."

Already warming to his next idea, Sutcliffe said: "What I now want to see is that we as a Government offer up coaching because I think coaching is going to be the biggest thing.

"We want schools to buy in coaches from different sports. We have the climbing wall here for example and we need to get kids interested in different sports.

"Yes, we want our traditional sports to do well but get as many different sports as possible so that people can taste different things."

The 54-year-old is passionate about the difference sport can make to people's lives.

He remembered: "We used to argue about crumbling schools in Bradford and about getting the fabric of the schools right but now things have moved on and it is now about getting the sports provision right because in the UK over the next ten years sport is going to be paramount because of the investment in schools sport.

"We are trying to get more people involved in sport - for obvious reasons, such as the health benefits, the obesity figures and the well-being of people in general."