THE Times has launched an exciting innovation to bring us closer to our valued and loyal readers and contributors.

To help strengthen our links with the community, we have created iwitness24, a dedicated website for people to use to share their photographs, videos and stories with our newsroom as well as their friends.

iwitness 24 can be used on a PC or smartphone and it could not be easier to sign up.

Just visit http://weston.iwitness24.co.uk, download our smartphone app or follow the link at the top right of this story. Register as a member and you can start sharing your material.

Your pictures, videos or stories will be displayed on the iwitness24 website and will go directly to our news teams where they could be selected for publication in the paper or on our website.

We will let you know when we have received your content and tell you what is happening with it.

We want to see your pictures from around the community, whether it be a scenic spot, an event you have attended, some freak weather conditions or an unusual occurrence that makes you stop and look.

When you are in the right place at the right time, we would love you to capture the moment and share it via iwitness24.

We would also love to hear from you if you are attending an event, big or small, or when you want to share some good news about your club, organisation or sport team.

Editor Judi Kisiel said: “We have a wealth of readers who already share their photos and stories with us but iwitness24 will give even more people an easy platform to use to share their pictures or videos.

“When something happens there is always someone nearby with a camera or smartphone which could be used to simply and quickly share what has happened with the rest of the community.”

All that is left to do now is for you to sign up and see how you can get involved.

Some of the exciting features of the iwitness24 site include:

- Follow friends and favourite users and keep up to date with their latest submissions.

- Rise through the ranks by adding more photos and videos, voting for other people’s pictures and commenting on them.

- Share your favourite work on your Facebook wall or Twitter account.

- Take part in our Call for Witnesses scheme, which will see us sending out requests to iwitness24 users for pictures of a certain incident or event we know is happening in our area.