A new charity shop called Active Luton Sports Traider has opened with a mission to make sports equipment and clothing accessible to all by recycling old and unwanted sports kit.

Opened by the Major of Luton, Cllr Tom Shaw, the new shop at The Mall Luton is also intended to encourage local people back into sports.

Cllr Shaw was supported by local sports stars including ex-Luton Town player Kingsley Black and the former captain of the Marshall Milton Keynes Lions basketball team, Dru Spinks.

The shop launch marks the beginning of an ongoing campaign to urge local residents to clear out their storage spaces and donate any unwanted kit related to sport or keeping fit.

The Active Luton Sports Traider team will then wash, clean and restore the kit and sell it at affordable prices.

The Luton shops follows the inaugural branch opening in Bedford in 2009. Any profit made will be reinvested back into local sporting activities.

Active Luton is a not-for-profit distributing sport and leisure trust, which is responsible for all the public leisure facilities across Luton, and for promoting wellbeing, healthy-living and fitness to local people.