Talking Newspapers
| Published: 8th September 2008 23:20 |
In this close-up of what's happening in and around Billericay, we focus on the local talking newspaper service.
About the service
Wickford and District Talking Newspaper have just celebrated 30 years of recording local News on tape every week, totally free, to visually impaired people in the District. The service covers a wide area including Wickford, Billericay, Basildon, Grays, Woodham Ferrers and surrounding areas.
"relocation"
After 2 years in the doldrums, when the service had to operate out of temporary accommodation due to the re-generation of Wickford, it is now celebrating its relocation to the altogether more comfortable surroundings of the new George Hurd Centre in Basildon. The move has given the volunteers access to a specially sound-proofed room and finally provided the team with the much needed space to purchase new digital equipment to greatly improve its services.
A spokesperson for the service explained "Although there are still suppliers of tapes, it is difficult for our listeners to purchase players on which to listen to them and for us to get our ageing recording equipment repaired due to lack of spare parts. We now have digital equipment to make our recordings and can now offer CDs and Memory sticks. We can also down-load to our Web-site the latest recordings which can then be be heard direct from people's computers. We will, however, still send out tapes for as long as our listeners require them and for as long as we can still find suppliers".
"totally free and completely run by volunteers"
In addition to providing weekly news, the service also sends out a Monthly Magazine and a Monthly Information recording. The service includes 7 Teams of 4-5 people, who work on a rota basis to read selected news articles. These services are totally free and completely run by volunteers but there is a continual need for funding to cover repairs, supplies, service charges and rent, all of which the team need to cover in order to maintain this worthwhile service.
More information can be found on the service's web-site regarding its conversion to digital recording and how you can get involved as a supporter or volunteer. The site can also be used to contact the team, listen to a recording or find details of a simple and easy way to support us through a shopping site.
Finally, if you know anyone who may wish to receive their own copies of the talking newspaper, the website also provides details of how to go about this.
