PAPER FORCED INTO SILENCE

ONE of the many services around the Valley and beyond affected by the Covid-19 pandemic has unfortunately been the Rossendale Talking Newspaper (RTN), the local charity supplying blind, partially-sighted and others with an audible copy of the Free Press each week.

Our service requires groups of readers to meet and record, in close proximity, for around a period of two hours.

Many of our sixty-two volunteers fall into the vulnerable categories considered by experts as being “at risk” when in group situations.

Alongside this issue there is also the mailing aspect, both with receiving incoming plastic wallets from outside sources and with despatching those copies of the recordings.

The risks of cross infection to our people and the added risk of those people then passing on infection to others has regretfully led to the decision to suspend operations until such time as it is deemed safe to resume.

This is the first, and we hope, the only time that the charity formed in 1979 has needed to suspend the service, a decision that became increasingly inevitable but still deeply disappointing to all of the RTN “family”. The recording of the Free

Press dated 20th March was the last one for the foreseeable future.

We will of course bounce back from this hiatus and will be looking at that time to extend our listenership even further than the hundred or so people who currently receive the recordings each week.

To help us with this we are already looking for the services of a volunteer Secretary to look after a small amount of paperwork, take the minutes at six meeting per year and draw up a duty rota for the teams of volunteers.

Anyone interested in joining us in this capacity can ring me on 01706 213962 for a chat.

In the meantime, best wishes to everyone around the Valley.

Keep yourself and others safe.

Rodney Poucher Chairman RTN