A talking newspaper in Norwich has announced it will be expanding its service.

Chatterbox, the free talking newspaper for the blind and partially sighted, is forming a series of new partnerships for its Chataround service which already reaches around 400 people in the Norwich area.

The plan will bring in more listeners but importantly, will improve integration between sighted and sight-impaired people.

Chatterbox chairman David Potten said: 'We hope that this will help integration between the sighted and sight-impaired communities and spread the word about our free services among sight-impaired people who we do not yet reach.'

The services include a weekly digest of stories from the Norwich Evening News for Norwich area listeners and monthly readings from the Norfolk Magazine and Let's Talk magazine.

Chataround is a quarterly magazine programme of ten minute interviews with local people in the news and covering a wide range of topics relevant to Norfolk.

It is distributed free to sight-impaired listeners through the Post Office on memory sticks which can be played on a computer or a dedicated player, freely supplied by Chatterbox.

Under the new plan, hospital radio at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the Norwich community station Future Radio have agreed to take the Chataround interviews for their general audiences.

At the same time, the recordings will be offered to nine other talking newspapers which together reach 1,000 blind and partially sighted people across Norfolk and north Suffolk.

The newspaper has been providing news for the blind community in Norwich and is celebrating its 40th anniversary as a local charity this year.

The volunteer-run organisation is free to use and relies on more than 100 people willing to help out at the headquarters on King Street.

Chatterbox recently recorded its 2,000th milestone edition of its weekly summary of local news stories and features.

Anyone interested in finding out more or receiving Chatterbox news can contact 01603 765365, email contact@cbtn.org.uk, visit www.cbtn.org.uk or by mail at Chatterbox, 240 King Street, Norwich, NR1 2TT.