A TALKING newspaper service which provides weekly news to blind and partially sighted listeners has returned to its studios after an 18-month hiatus.

The Wyre Forest Talking Newspaper is also looking for fresh blood to boost its volunteer numbers who produce the material.

The charity, which is entirely funded by voluntary donations and run by volunteers, has been unable to provide its usual service during the Pandemic, depriving over 150 listeners of their weekly fix of the latest news, sports and information culled from the Shuttle.

For the past six months it has been able to produce a fortnightly version by recording the news items from volunteers’ homes instead of from its state of the art studios in Franche, Kidderminster where normally a group of up to eight readers, technicians and admin staff would produce and mail out memory sticks to its regular listeners.

Kidderminster Shuttle:

Talking Newspaper chairman David Condy said: “It has been a difficult time for us and more so those who normally receive the memory sticks. "We have done our best to try to provide a service but Covid restrictions meant we were unable to congregate as a group in the studio in the way we have done in the past.

“Now as restrictions ease and with additional security measures in place at the venue we feel we are able to get back to some sort of normality.

“In the past we have had over 50 volunteers working in three teams working as readers, editors, technicians and on admin but we are losing a few members of our regular teams through retirement so we desperately need some new faces to help out.

“The commitment is only a few hours every three or four weeks and our volunteers find it a very enjoyable experience.”

The local group was formed in 1980 and in addition to the weekly news it also produces a quarterly magazine called the Magpie which is a collection of interesting and often offbeat articles from periodicals.

Digital recordings are made at the studio and copied onto to memory sticks which are sent to listeners in the Wyre Forest area and beyond using the Royal Mail’s ‘Articles for the Blind’ service.

New listeners are visited by members of the group’s liaison team and presented with a free player for the memory sticks.

Mr Condy added: “Our work is entirely supported by donations from individuals, organisations and councils and we are always looking for new sponsors who would like to help us and also new blind or partially sighted listeners who might not know about us and would benefit from what we do.”