The Tonbridge and Malling Talking Newspaper is celebrating its 27th anniversary this year. The recording of the tapes is organised by the Tonbridge Lions Club on a weekly schedule and sent to the Kent Association for the Blind. It is then copied on a multi-bank copier and distributed to approximately 120 recipients who are blind or partially sighted and live or have previously lived in the area.

To create the tape one of five groups of volunteers consisting of an editor, four readers and a technician, work every Friday evening at Tonbridge Cottage Hospital Day Care Centre.  The editor selects, from the Tonbridge edition of The Courier newspaper, enough items relating to the area to fill two sides of a thirty-minute tape. These are cut and placed onto cards that are divided between four readers.  The recording equipment is set up and each reader in turn reads an article of news until both sides of the tape have been recorded. This master tape is then posted to the K.A.B. at Maidstone.

In the early days all this was all done by members of Tonbridge Lions Club but over the years other volunteers have come forward to assist with the task. In addition to the 30 volunteers who fill the five teams, 15 to 20 reserves are needed to cover for illness and holidays. Richard Rose is the Lions Club co-ordinator for the Tonbridge tape and any person wishing to volunteer can contact him on

01892 863392