A repair cafe is a pop-up where volunteers fix your household equipment which might otherwise get thrown away. Repair cafes are not unusual, they are popping up all over the country and we think it’s time Tattenhall had one. They area great ways to stop waste, reduce consumption, and build community links.
This is for simple repairs on generally low value equipment where a professional repair is not needed, or cost effective – think broken chair leg, ripped cushion, broken kettle lid etc.
We held a successful crowdfunding campaign on Spacehive which you can see here. With generous pledges from 40 members of the wonderful local community as well Tattenhall & District Parish Council, CWaC’s Cheshire West Crowd Fund and CWAC’s Tackling Poverty Fund we hit our fundraising target and can crack on with getting the first Repair Cafe up and running.
The first repair cafe, there will be one a month, took place last Sunday (31 July). There was a brief publicity campaign through Facebook to remind people of the repair cafe and ask them to bring their broken appliances etc. We collected our volunteer repairers, four for the first cafe, and we opened the doors at 10 in the morning.
From the start we were busy, there was a steady stream of people coming with equipment, clothing, blunt knives, broken table, tools, all sorts. Our receptionist was kept busy booking in clients, directing them to a suitable volunteer, and organising PAT testing. Our cafe was busy serving teas, coffees, biscuits for people while they waited to be seen, or equipment to be fixed.
In the two hours we took in 16 items, we fixed 6 in the morning, made recommendations for replacement parts/batteries for 3 items, we have 3 items still with volunteers having longer term work done and we failed with 4. Saving we think 12 items from landfill, and replacement. There was also a much conversation and interest in the room about the repairs, and about Transition.
The repair cafe is a monthly event. The next one is 28th August 10-12 at Barbour Institute. Don’t forget to bring your broken stuff that might be saved, bring your repairs on the day or you can book in at tattenhall.repair.cafe@gmail.com. And we will be always looking for handy and skilled volunteers, we need to give people a break and cover absences, so if you would like to volunteer as repairer please be in touch.