A TALKING newspaper produced in Tavistock has been voted one of the top ten in the country for the third year running.
The Plymouth and West Devon Cassette, a talking newspaper for the blind and visually-impaired, beat nearly 500 other talking newspapers in the annual BT awards.
The winning entry was 'Tales out of School', part of a humorous series written and read by Buff Saxon, one of the newspaper's editors.
Editor Lyn Browne said the charity produced 400 tapes weekly from its Tavistock recording studio, equipped in 1996 with a lottery grant, but when it started out 24 years ago in the old Tavistock nurses' home, there were just four listeners.
There are now 100 volunteers reading, recording and distributing the tapes and many of them have been with the organisation since its inception in 1976.
The Post Office also does its bit, distributing the tapes to listeners free of charge and collecting them for recycling the following week.
The tapes include articles form the Times series of newspapers and other local papers, a post bag, interviews, reports and discussions. There is also a monthly magazine.
Mrs Browne said they did not have that many people in the Tavistock area and perhaps only a third of all the registered sight-impaired in the Plymouth and West Devon area.
If you know of anyone who might like to receive copies of the local news totally free of charge please call Chris Dicker on 01822 612102.