A free service to help adults learn to read has been launched in Weston.

Weston Mercury: Anne Leaney and Tim Bull with Julie Newman and Lorraine Bush.Picture: Quartet Community FoundationAnne Leaney and Tim Bull with Julie Newman and Lorraine Bush.Picture: Quartet Community Foundation (Image: Quartet Community Foundation)

Read Easy Weston was given £2,000 from the North Somerset Realising Potential Fund through Quartet Community Foundation to help it run its service across town in February.

The project is the first to benefit from the council's fund, and one-quarter of the grant will go towards funding books for the Read Easy Weston scheme.

National charity Read Easy trains and supports volunteers to give one-to-one tutoring to adults who struggle with reading.

Team leader at Read Easy Weston, Tim Bull, said: "We meet at venues across Weston at The Campus, the town centre library and job centre and the For All Healthy Living Centre.

"Volunteers also meet at Worle library and Oldmixon Family Centre, as well as CMT Services in the Boulevard.

"Coaches will help students for as long as it takes - there's no timetable of teaching - and the lecturers will go at the learner's pace.

"We hope to have the 12-14 people who have enquired to take part in the course signed-up soon."

He added that grant funding was welcome, as people could be in the reading programme for up to two years, which costs £260 per person enrolled.

North Somerset Council spokesman Lorraine Bush said: "The Read Easy project cuts across a whole range of objectives that our North Somerset Realising Potential Fund wants to support.

"It is about creating a funding stream that can be a lasting legacy for local people in need.

"Many of us do so much for charity, but this is about taking a more local approach and supporting the voluntary effort that is happening in North Somerset.

"This group really highlights how a reasonably small amount of money can make a big difference."

Julie Newman from Quartet Community Foundation said the project was a leading example of how funders could support a voluntary group to offer a 'life-changing project' for people living in North Somerset.

People interested in signing up to the Read Easy Weston programme can email Tim at westonsupermare@readeasy.org.uk