A NEW Talking Newspaper for Crediton and the surrounding area has been launched thanks to Crediton Lions, Lichfield Talking News

(Staffordshire) and the Crediton Courier.

The trio have launched an enhanced talking newspaper service, which is free to anyone who has difficulty reading.

The Talking News Federation asked John May of the Lichfield Talking News to set up a new talking newspaper for the Crediton area.

This has been done and the service began on May 1.

Listeners are provided with a special media player on which to play memory sticks.

These are provided free of any charge and are being administered locally by the Crediton Lions Club.

This free service brings not only all of the local news, thus providing a bridge back into the community for people who are sometimes quite isolated, but it also brings an additional 12 hours of important news and entertainment.

In addition to the news, listeners are treated to a number of magazines they can listen to on the memory stick in their media player.

These include Womans' Own, Womans' Weekly, People's Friend, Good Food, Gardening, Nature, BBC History, Hello! and quite a few more.

Brochures about the service are available from Crediton Library, where there is also a large collection of audio books to borrow.

The former Crediton and District Talking Newspaper service, which ended last year, saw many volunteer recording groups record the Crediton Courier onto cassettes, which were then fast-copied at the Courier office before sending out to listeners.

This service, co-ordinated for many years by dedicated volunteers led by Alan and Molly Ruddock of Crediton, provided a valuable service but ended when a lack of willing volunteers forced its closure.

Fortunately, with the new service, recording is done by volunteer teams at Lichfield and modern technology means for a service without cassette tapes.

If anyone knows of someone who would benefit from receiving a weekly recording, or would like more information, please contact Lion Peter Bryan on 01363 773437 or John May on 07948 794982.

Alan Quick