A CHARITY for the blind and partially-sighted hopes to extend its services after moving to new premises in Durham City.

The County Durham Society for the Blind and Partially-Sighted has relocated from an upstairs office in North Road to an ex-community hall at Church Lane that it was offered by Durham City Council.

The new centre, now called the Oswald Court Resource Centre, is at ground level and accessible to people in wheelchairs and to those with eyesight problems.

The society, which helps 2,000 people across the county, hopes it will be able to offer more from its new premises.

Volunteer co-ordinator Sandra Hillyard said: "We are delighted with our new premises - they are better than we could ever have imagined.

"We are hoping that this will be the start of further developments for the society and that we will be able both to improve and extend our services.

"In the new premises we have disabled parking and a disabled toilet which you can get around if you are in a wheelchair or have problems with stairs.

"We are hoping to hold a mentoring course on getting started with synthetic speech computer software.

"We also hope we can offer a range of activities from these premises that we could not offer where we were before.''

The society offers help including home visits, talking newspapers and a driver escort service for eye clinic appointments.

It is always looking for volunteers and help with fund-raising. For further details call 0191-386 8175.