A lot of nationalities get confused by English phrases like reading a book, which is pronounced "reeding" and the town of Reading, pronounced redding. So the Liberal Democrats, Britain's third-largest political group have launched a service to help bridge the linguistic divide.

The Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Reading East, Councillor Gareth Epps, and the leader of the Liberal Democrat group of Reading Borough Council, Councillor Kirsten Bayes, started the new service for the central England town's large Polish community last weekend.

The idea for the surgery arose from talks with the UK's Liberal Democrat Friends of Poland group, who raised concerns that the language barrier and discrimination faced by many Poles left some struggling to cope with a variety of issues.

Such was the demand for the service that the surgery, held in the Gospoda bar/restaurant on Bedford Road, Reading, had to be extended by an hour so that all those attending could be seen. Polish translation was provided by community leader and assistant manager of Gospoda, Mariusz Rapa.

"I have been doing charity and community work for over 2 years. Many times people come to me with very difficult problems. They don't know what to do and where to go... They heard about me and they hope that I would help but many times even I don't know what to do. That's why I am very glad and I strongly believe that our regular Advice centre in Gospoda for Polish people in Reading will change a lot for the better," said Rapa.