The new Erdington Leisure Centre - designed to provide the whole community with a fresh, modern exercise and recreation venue - features a 25-metre swimming pool, a teaching pool, a 70-station gym and a community room/studio space.  A wide range of fitness classes as well as children’s holiday play activities and birthday parties will also be available.

The brand new building has taken just over a year to construct and is opening almost a month ahead of schedule and on budget. The £7.5million replacement of Erdington’s leisure centre is part of a city wide investment of nearly £40million by Birmingham City Council and is the first of four new complexes to be completed.

Birmingham Community Leisure Trust (BCLT), working in partnership with Birmingham City Council (BCC), has overseen the project and will manage the new centre once it opens its doors.

BCLT Chair, Brian Taylor, said: “The transformation of this Erdington site since we stood here last summer is truly impressive.  I am very proud to hand over such a high quality, purpose built facility to our community and I invite everyone, whatever their age and whatever sport they enjoy, to take the opportunity to come and use this brilliant new centre.

“We will be holding a special Open Day on Saturday 30 September when our great team based at Erdington Leisure Centre every day will be here to show you around, answer your questions about activities, classes and membership options and there will be many free events for you to sample what we have to offer.

“If you are yet to join the thousands of people keeping fit and healthy through regular exercise, I am confident there is every chance you will find what you are looking for here.”

Birmingham City Council’s Deputy Leader Cllr Ian Ward added: “I am delighted that our residents in Erdington and the surrounding area now have a brand new leisure centre – ahead of schedule - and I thank our partners for working with us to provide cost effective and modern facilities.  Despite the considerable budgetary restraints we face, we will continue to support and encourage people to remain active and pursue a healthy lifestyle.”

Construction of replacement leisure centres is ongoing at Stechford and Northfield sites in the east and south of the city. A fourth centre at a new site at Icknield Port Loop in Edgbaston will be built and managed by BCLT. The Trust has also delivered a programme of refurbishments to Fox Hollies Leisure Centre; Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre; Beeches Leisure Centre and Wyndley Leisure Centre.

ISG Construction plc has undertaken the construction of the new leisure centres at Erdington, Stechford and Northfield to designs by Calderpeel Architects.

Erdington Leisure Centre is located on Orphanage Road, Erdington, Birmingham B24 9HU.

Shocking research reveals 200,000 school kids* could lose access to breakfast at school due to slashed budgets and cuts.

Worrying findings released today revealed 43 per cent of teachers say their school breakfast club will have to close in the next three years – including those that operate in the most deprived parts of the UK.

In the report by Kellogg’s titled ‘The future of school breakfast clubs: a funding crisis in the UK’ teachers were asked to list the reasons they fear their clubs will close: 86 per cent said school funding was the main reason.

Troubled teachers also told how the new requirement for extra staffing in clubs (44 per cent) will make them more difficult to run.

In a bid to keep the clubs open, a quarter (26 per cent) of schools have redirected funds from other parts of the school budget such as school trips, making staff cuts and buying fewer classroom resources.

Now some schools have also had to rely on donations from private companies, charities and parents.

Worried teachers warned the closure of their breakfast club will lead to a rise in naughty behaviour in the classroom (34 per cent) and worsen attendance (33 per cent).

More than a third (36 per cent) of teachers surveyed from schools with breakfast clubs that have already closed down said they have since noticed a decline in exam results following the closure.

John Coe from the National Association of Primary Education comments: “Breakfast clubs are at a critical point in their work and the overriding reason is that cuts to school funding over the next three years threaten the closing down of clubs which serve children and young people. The impact upon disadvantaged communities will be particularly severe.

“Teachers testify to the educational gains which stem from a healthy breakfast and the positive effect on school and family life has been confirmed by the Department for Education. Policy makers should listen and then take decisive action to provide financial support.”

Not only will schoolchildren be affected by these closures but working families will feel the impact also. More than a quarter (27 per cent) of parents say the absence of a breakfast club would mean at least one parent would be forced out of work.

David Lawlor, Kellogg’s managing director said: “Great progress has been made since the 1990s to increase the number of schools offering pupils a safe and fun environment that provides a nutritious breakfast. That’s why each year the Kellogg’s Breakfast Club Awards celebrate the fantastic people who make these clubs happen every day in schools up and down the country.

“But the future for these vital breakfast clubs is at risk. The challenge for schools, government and partners in private and third sectors is to ensure that we help to sustain as many pre-school clubs as possible. We will continue to offer grants to schools breakfast clubs because we believe that every child deserves the best start to the day.”

As tourism has become a powerful engine for the local economic and social development of cities, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has partnered with the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) to develop an instrument that can measure the performance of the sector in metropolitan areas. Under the title ‘UNWTO-WTCF City Tourism Performance Research’ the project will include a set of criteria and a platform for information.

According to UN Habitat (2050, 70% of the world’s population is expected to be living in cities. By 2025, metropolitan areas will contribute over 30 trillion US dollars annually to the world economy. As tourism currently accounts as a central component in the economic, social and geographical development of many cities it is essential to monitor tourism performance in urban destinations and clearly address the areas for improvement. As stated by UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai, “city tourism should go hand by hand with sustainable development; preserving environmental treasures together with tangible and intangible heritage should be parallel to the importance of engaging local communities”.

The partnership between UNWTO and WTCF to measure city tourism will assist policy makers and all stakeholders in their efforts to take strategic action for better urban tourism governance and sustainable management.

The project includes research on City Tourism Performance collecting information about the existing systems to measure city tourism performance worldwide. A total of 16 cities located in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin American participated in the survey. The exercise will allow to define a set of criteria that can constitute the best possible assessment of city tourism performance at a reasonable cost.

“Cities provide an important vehicle for world tourism development. Launched in 2015, the UNWTO-WTCF City Tourism Performance Research Programme has conducted a comprehensive analysis of 16 tourism cities in the world in the five areas:  destination management, economic perspective, social and cultural perspectives, environmental perspective as well as technology & new business models. The findings offer very useful guidance for promoting sustainable development in cities around the world,” said the Secretary General of WTCF, Song Yu.

Applying the UNWTO-WTCF City Tourism Performance Research Survey requires involving different stakeholders’ groups. Data is collected at the city level by the tourism experts identified by UNWTO and WTCF. Some of the performance criteria can be collected from the official data sources from cities such as Census and household surveys although expert interviews are necessary to have a more in-depth understanding of each city.

The results of the research conducted in the Asia-Pacific Region were presented last weekend in Tianjin, China and later this month on 26 September in Buenos Aires, Argentina a second workshop will discuss the results of the Latin American cities, aiming to create a platform to give recommendations to those cities on the selected key performance areas and to give general indications to all cities on recent challenges in urban tourism.

The 16 different city cases will be compiled in a publication free of charge on the UNWTO website which will serve as a guideline on how cities can improve their future implementation of tourism development.

The much-anticipated African Caribbean Community Initiative (ACCI) Gala Dinner event will be taking place September 16^th , to celebrate 30 years of the charity serving the community.

As one of the longest surviving community based charities in the field of mental ill health, ACCI aims to develop, co-ordinate and deliver culturally appropriate and consistently high standards of supported care/advice for members of the African Caribbean community and their families affected by mental ill health.

The theme of the Gala event sponsored by; Paycare, The Good Patty Company, Firewalker gym is “The Journey” and will celebrate service members, long serving employees, carer groups and volunteers who’ve supported the charity over the years.

To mark the occasion, guests will be greeted on arrival to music from steel pan band, Mighty Jamma, followed by a two-course authentic Caribbean meal with feature performances from Lovers Rock singer, Peter Spence, Claire Angel, 2016 winner of Britain’s Got Reggae and top Jamaican comedian Penguin.

Alicia Spence, ACCI Centre Manager is excited about the 30 years celebration. She said: “The Gala event is a special day to look forward to, as the event has grown year on year attracting people from all over the West Midlands and become a prominent fixture in the ACCI calendar”

“It’s also great to see how much support we’ve had from local businesses such as; Accord Housing, Terrence Higgins Trust, EC Electrical Services and Higher Level World.”

The transformation of Tottenham’s High Road West – with thousands of new homes, new jobs, new community facilities and a landmark civic square designed in partnership with local residents – could soon be underway following years of community participation in shaping the ambitious plans.

Haringey Council’s Cabinet will next week (Tuesday 12 September) discuss a recommendation to choose regeneration experts Lendlease as the preferred bidder to deliver local people’s ambitions for the area.

The announcement follows more than five years of community engagement and consultation, which has seen residents’ vision placed at the heart of a masterplan for the area through a Resident Charter and Residents’ Design Panel and design guide. Residents have also been involved in the 18-month competitive procurement process to select Lendlease as the preferred bidder to take the scheme forward.

The importance of the High Road West scheme, which covers the area opposite the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium development, has also been highlighted by the Mayor of London, who has contributed £62million funding to support the ambitious scheme as part of the wider regeneration of north Tottenham.

Highlights include:

• More than 2,500 homes, with at least 750 affordable homes
• 191 high-quality, safe replacement homes for existing council tenants and resident leaseholders, meeting the aspirations of their Resident Charter
• A cutting edge new library and learning centre
• A refurbished community hub with new facilities at the Grange
• A new civic square for community activities and cultural events, flanked by new shops, restaurants and cafes
• New green spaces including gardens, children’s play area and outdoor gym
• More than £10million social and economic support for businesses and residents
• Investment in the town centre and community events
• Thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of new jobs following development
• A new industrial space to support businesses from the existing Peacock Industrial Estate