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Birmingham Talking Newspapers for the blind & visually impaired (BTNBVI) Registered Charity (England) No. 1185917
Trustees' Annual Report – 1 April 2025 31 March 2026
Section A
' Charity s principal address Strangford Rd Lichfield Hopwas Tamworth B78 3AG
Names of the charity trust ees who manage the charity
David Gowdy - Chair - Danny Collman VC (South) Rob Halley - VC (North) Kath Collman - Secretary
- Ian Alexander Treasurer Marion Dance Denise Cutting Ann Meadows
Section B
Governance
BTNBVI is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation whose trustees are elected by its Members at each Annual General Meeting. Members are mainly THE volunteers who produce the recordings each week.
BTNBVI is affiliated to the national Talking Newspapers Federation (TNF) and to Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC)
Since 2020 BTNBVI has with the of continued pattern operations established by Birmingham Talking Newspaper Association (BTNA) over its 40 years providing a talking newspaper service.
Our trustees are mainly experienced senior volunteers but we do need to widen our skills base. Our “more than reading” initiative has been effective in developing a volunteer team for publicity work.
Section C
Charitable Objects
The object of BTNBVI is to relieve the blind or visually impaired in the Birmingham area by the provision of recorded material read primarily from newspapers and magazines.
In meeting its object and to provide public benefit, each week BTNBVI provides 3- 5 hours of recorded material which is distributed by post using USB memory sticks to blind and visually-impaired listeners across Birmingham. This is current material, mostly from local print newspapers, and therefore not readily accessible to visually impaired people. Recordings can also be accessed via our website: www.btnbvi.org, via the TNF Upload Service and via Alexa or similar smart speakers. The service helps reduce social isolation and listeners often comment on the companionship of familiar voices “in the room”.
We continue to receive encouraging comments from listeners:
-
Thank you for the many hours of enjoyable listening you have provided for my father over the past years. ….. It has been of great benefit since he lost his sight to be able to continue enjoying the things that interest him. Thank you on his behalf.
-
My Mum sadly died recently, so will no longer be requiring the Talking Newspaper. I would like to thank all the volunteers for your hard work and the pleasure that you brought to Mum.
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To everyone: thank you for all you do to bring the papers to me and obvs [sic] everyone else. (this from a new listener)
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Thank you for the Blind Dave interviews. They are so interesting and he speaks so clearly and with such enthusiasm.
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The RNIB items added recently have been a real treat
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Just a note to let you know that I am enjoying this very much. This is a great service. Keep up the good work.
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Excellent readers. Interesting magazine and lecture. Well done. Thank you.
Section D
Performance
Talking News output has continued weekly with some new programme content we use with permission of Goalhanger Podcasts Ltd . Listener referrals have begun to improve, responding to the new publicity efforts, but are still fewer than we would prefer.
The pattern of TN usage is often irregular rather than a constant weekly flow of sent and received pouches. This may be a consequence of persistent Royal Mail delivery problems which are also of concern to local MPs. Online access is still quite low – approximately 50% of our listeners
do not have internet access and USB delivery is still the more popular service.
Trustees, who have a legal duty for prudent and effective management of the charity, continue to review the possibility of working from a single site. Duplicate centres do offer more capacity than needed, especially as the listener numbers do not increase.
One development that does need more people is the “more than reading” concept that encourages volunteers to support areas like publicity, training, listener contact. The improved RNIB ECLO and FOCUS Birmingham relationships have led to increased referrals and we are increasing the number of talks given to local community groups.
Our long-running and repeated History programme material was replaced in Jan 2025 with a commercial podcast series (The Rest is History, which of this was undertaken via a has 11M customers worldwide). Evaluation listener survey. A majority favoured the new approach but others disliked it. A further small group asked for “something different to history”, reflecting our previous research showing that 50% of listeners simply disliked history. We have therefore also started to include material from the RNIB Newsagent service.
A review of our Health & Safety policy was begun in Jan 2026 and will inform other ongoing policy work which is likely to be helped by new TNF policy templates
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Section E
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Finance
The Treasurer has continued to improve our money management and is preparing a Gift Aid submission to HMRC.
At present income donations do not fully cover running costs, leaving a small annual deficit that is offset from reserves.
BTNBVI bank accounts are with The Co-Operative Bank. The arrangements have now bedded in with almost all handled online. transactions
Section F - Section G
Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature
Full name ALFRED DAVID GOWDY
Position CHAIR
Date
24 June 2026
Note: this report is presented in sections that align with the Charities Commission Trustees Annual Report CC16 template
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
funds funds funds
Categories Details
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash Co-op current A/c 1,278 -
funds Co-op Deposit A/c 2,701 - -
Redwood Deposit A/c 35,000 - -
Total cash funds 38,980 - -
(agree balances with receipts and
payments account(s))
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
funds funds funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other None - - -
monetary - - -
assets - - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Fund to which Cost Current value
Details asset belongs (optional) (optional)
B3 None - -
Investment - -
assets - -
- -
- -
Fund to which Cost Current value
Details asset belongs (optional) (optional)
B4 Assets Studio equipment - USB General 10,000 Ref Notes
retained for copiers,laptops, mixers, microphones, - -
voice recorders.
the charity’s - -
own use - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which Amount due When due
Details liability relates (optional) (optional)
B5 Liabilities [ None ] -
-
-
-
-
Signed by one or
two trustees on Date of
Signature Print Name
behalf of all the approval
trustees
I. Alexander (Treasurer) 15-Jul-26
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Notes:-
Most equipment is 4+ years old and has no formal book value. Two laptops and one mixer were replaced prior to end 2021 at a cost of £900 Two sony voice recorders were purchased at 249.08 in January 2026
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BIRMINGHAM TALKING NEWSPAPERS
FOR THE BLIND & VISUALLY IMPAIRED (BTNBVI) 1185917
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
CC16a For the period Period start date Period end
To
from 01/04/2025 31/03/2026
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total Last year
funds funds funds funds 31/03/25
to the nearest to the nearest to the to the
to the nearest £
£ £ nearest £ nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations 3,519 - - 3,519 3,809
Interest Co-op 304 - - 304 918
Interest Redwood 1,240 - - 1,240 -
Sub total (Gross income for AR) [ 5,063 ] - - 5,063 4,727
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total receipts 5,063 - - 5,063 4,727
A3 Payments
P.O. Boxes 743 743 683
Studio Rent 2,090 - - 2,090 2,040
Room hire. Other meetings 142 142 180
Material from RNIB. RIH 230 230 -
Email A/c hosting 43 43 50
Web site design & hosting 696 696 216
Zoom 312 312 -
TNF Subs Conf. fees 42 42 42
Insurance 289 289 252
Publicity 109 109 565
USB Players, chargers 992 992 479
USB Sticks 196 196 57
Other Tech Equipment 357 357 -
Misc / Sundries 1,697 - - 1,697 431
Sub total 7,938 - - 7,938 4,995
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 7,938 - - 7,938 4,995
Net of receipts/(payments) - 2,876 - - - 2,876 - 268
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 41,855 - - 41,855 42,123
Cash funds this year end 38,979 - - 38,979 41,855
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Notes:
Amounts shown to nearest pound These accounts are based on bank transactions during the year