TWO friends who met through bouldering are set to bring a state-of-the-art climbing centre to Bradford.

It all started a year ago when avid climbers Ramon Romero and Ejaz Hussain decided to partner up and fulfil their dreams of creating a climbing centre that acts as a "hub for the community".

The Climbing Hub, opening at Shires Business Park on November 1, is filled with a series of easy to advanced walls as well as a leap wall as high as the roof and training area.

The pair hope it will encourage people young and old to take up the hobby and build on their fitness with plans to hold workshops with school pupils.

Ramon, who lives in Boston Spa, said: "I started climbing quite late on with other people, it was my first year at university. It was just to try something new and the personal challenge. I'm originally from Spain. When I came over here and I got into climbing walls, eventually I think a few years ago I said I'm just going to go and do it.

"Me and Ejaz met many years ago.

"He's originally from Bradford, he grew up in Bradford then he moved out, got married and had kids. When we thought about trying to find a place we realised it was in front of our eyes.

"When I started this it was about making a positive difference to the community.

"It's a lifestyle, it's just like a gym. It gets you into good habits, health, and it's just about making a difference to the local community.

"We wanted to have a kind of 'chilling out' area and we've got a pizza oven where they chill out and go back in. Obviously we're not doing that now but we've got all the space. The space is massive and we didn't fill it on purpose. It's important people have plenty of space. It's sad as we had more of a cosy view but at this moment of time it's a strength for us. People can respect the space. The wall is very spacious.

"We're also following Government guidelines and Association of British Climbing Walls. We're following rules to the letter."

For Ejaz, who grew up in Great Horton and previous owner of The Climbing Lab, it was about "investing" in Bradford.

He explained: "The way I looked at it is I grew up in Bradford and when I left for uni I moved away so all these years living in Leeds and seeing how bigger cities got great investment, we had the option of going other places that may have been fruitful but we took the conscious decision of investing in Bradford. Bradford needs a climbing centre.

"We're really excited investing in Bradford for that reason."