Talking news service for Littlehampton, Worthing and Shoreham areas is highly valued, survey finds

Listeners have been overwhelmingly positive about Sussex Coast Talking News, saying how much they appreciate the free audio newspaper and magazine.
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Since 1975, the service has been providing the blind and visually impaired with an audio newspaper and magazine free of charge every fortnight.

The service covers the Littlehampton, Worthing and Shoreham areas, and the main sources for news items are the Littlehampton Gazette, Worthing Herald and West Sussex Gazette.

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Rob Batho, director, said: “We are always keen to improve our service to listeners and recently we carried out a survey to see what they thought.

Volunteers at Sussex Coast Talking News produce recordings on CDs of local news for Littlehampton, Worthing and ShorehamVolunteers at Sussex Coast Talking News produce recordings on CDs of local news for Littlehampton, Worthing and Shoreham
Volunteers at Sussex Coast Talking News produce recordings on CDs of local news for Littlehampton, Worthing and Shoreham

“These are the main findings - 94 per cent of the listeners who responded rated the sound quality on their recording as good or very good and 85 per cent rated the quality of the news reading as good or very good.

“Listeners’ favourite items on the recordings were local news, what’s on, our magazine, poetry and music. And most said that there wasn’t anything they did not like.”

When asked to comment on the service provided, the response was overwhelmingly positive, with comments such as ‘I enjoy the local news’, ‘excellent and it’s free’, ‘it is an excellent service to keep the poorly sighted in touch’, ‘well-balanced and the format is good’, ‘very good it keeps me in touch with the visionary world’, ‘very good to have such a service and I appreciate the work of volunteers’, and ‘look forward to it’.

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Rob added: “I think you’ll agree that the responses from our listeners is a very positive one where they highly value what we provide.”

For more information, visit www.sussexcoasttn.org.uk and if you or anyone you know has a visual impairment or is blind and might like to receive the free fortnightly news and magazine on CD, please telephone 01903 776569 or email [email protected].