THE Birmingham Mail has launched 34 new community sections on its website, bringing you news and pictures from your area.

Your Communities is the latest initiative to be launched on www.Birminghammail.net and covers Birmingham, Solihull and Staffordshire.

Each community website features the latest news, community events and a gallery of nostalgic pictures.

Visitors also have access to travel information for their area, information about local attractions and opening times and contact details for local MPs and councillors.

The Mail is also seeking to work with existing hyperlocal websites in the city. More than 25 have already agreed to join the initiative. Content from the Your Communities section will appear in print every week in the Mail’s Yours supplement.

Readers are also being asked to send in their stories and pictures through the website and can sign up to the Mail’s Flickr group.

Aston and Nechells

The politician leading the government’s inquiry into the recent rioting sought the views of people in Birmingham at a meeting in Handsworth last night.

Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, was at City College’s Handsworth campus, in Soho Road, to discuss the underlying issues faced by communities in Birmingham and in particular young people.

It’s hoped the inquiry will enable the government to learn lessons from the unrest and produce plans to ensure such disorder never returns to the UK.

* For more news from the area, go to www.birchfield.org.uk

Bournville

An open day will allow the public to take one last look inside Bournville Lane Swimming Baths before work starts to convert it into a community centre.

The Grade II listed building opened 100 years ago, but has been closed since the mid-1980s after it fell into disrepair.

Later this month the baths will be deep cleaned with the renovation to start as early as January next year.

The open day, similar to one held in 2008, will take place from 11am to 3pm on September 3.

* To see pictures of the 2008 open day, visit www.bournvillevillage.com

Digbeth

The Digbeth Is Good blog has posted a list of the live and unsigned acts performing in local pubs this week.

Rise and Mesch are playing at The Moseley Arms on Friday with Rebecca & The Roses, Eastern Moon, Mrs England, The Fakulty Kakuzi and Billie Richards appearing at the same venue on Sunday.

* To keep informed about goings-on in Digbeth, go to www.digbeth.org

Edgbaston

Ward councillors James Hutchings and Deirdre Alden checked on the progress of a project to extract water from the ground in Edgbaston.

They visited the Severn Trent Water Treatment Works, in Waterworks Road, to view the pilot borehole.

If the borehole is successful, two permanent boreholes will be created to take water from the ground to supplement Birmingham’s supply from the Elan Valley in Wales.

* For more Edgbaston news, go to www.deirdrealden.wordpress.com

Kingstanding and Oscott

Keith Linnecor used his blog to call on the city council to offer discounts to residents who have waited more than six months to have drop kerbs instated.

The Oscott Ward councillor said the work can be quite expensive particularly if a tree or other obstacles need removing.

He added: “Residents should not have to hand over their money in full and wait so long.”

* To see Coun Linnecor’s views on other matters, go to www.keithlinnecor.blogspot.com

Northfield

Campaigners are holding an open day at Merrishaw Nursery, in West Heath, tomorrow in a bid to prompt a council U-turn on plans to close the centre.

Parents, councillors and Northfield MP Richard Burden are supporting the event in the hope it will demonstrate just how vital the service is to the local community.

A statement released by the parents said: “We are urgently appealing for the local councillors, MP and prospective councillors to attend at 12pm and declare a reversal of the closure decision and to change the nature of the event from a wake to a celebration.” The facility, rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, is due to close on Friday as the council shuts all of the city’s community day nurseries as part of a radical programme of cost-cutting.

Parents have been campaigning against the closure since 2010 and staged a protest march last month from the nursery to Hampstead House, where Councillor Randall Brew was holding a surgery.

* Updates on the closure proposals will be posted on www.b31.org.uk

Perry Barr

Be Heard In Birchfield has advertised jobs with two Birmingham-based social enterprises.

The positions are with ENTA and Social Enterprise WM, businesses which operate to make a profit in an ethical way which benefits communities and societies.

Links to the vacancies can be found at www.birchfield.org.uk

Sutton Coldfield

An annual 10k race is being held to raise cash for Birmingham City Mission.

Entrants to the event, now in its fourth year, in Sutton Park on Saturday, September 17, can either walk, cycle or run.

As well as the race, there will be different activities including a family treasure hunt, face painting and the BCM double decker.

* For more information, go to www.suttoncoldfieldlocal.co.uk

Washwood Heath and Hodge Liam Byrne MP used his blog to attack Chancellor George Osborne for showing ‘staggering complacency’ after new figures showed a rise in unemployment.

Statistics released last Wednesday revealed the number of people on the dole had risen by 37,000 while the number of unemployed women was at a 23-year high.

Mr Byrne said: “So what did the Chancellor have to say for himself?

“With staggering complacency, he mumbled the unemployment figures were ‘not entirely unexpected’.

“This kind of complacency from the man in charge of economic policy is very worrying.”

* To see more of Mr Byrne’s comments, go to www.liambyrne.co.uk

Solihull south

The Sillhillian blog reported how more than 80 per cent of students at Arden School achieved grades A* to C in this year’s A-levels results.

A statement on the blog said: “This improvement at the highest grades has led to many successes in university applications with admissions to Oxford for mathematics and Leeds for medicine among just two of the offers accepted.

“Despite concerns nationally regarding the rush for university places, we appear to be holding up well with nearly all students who applied now placed.”

* For more A-level results from Solihull schools, visit www.thesilhillian.blogspot.com

Tamworth

The Tamworth Blog was treated to a tour of the construction site where the new John Lewis is being built.

Construction on the shop’s exterior is almost finished with work on the internal structure, the 300-space car park and display windows well under way.

The 42,000 square ft store, which is costing £7 million to build, will create more than 200 new jobs, the majority of which have already been filled by residents living in and around Tamworth.

* To read the comments of branch manager Isabel Macdonald, go to www.tamworthblog.co.uk