THE BROMSGROVE Repair Cafe was ‘officially launched’ by district council chairman, Coun Rod Laight, and Town Crier Kevin Ward on Saturday.
The scheme – held from 2pm to 5pm on the first Saturday of the month at Bromsgrove All Saints Church Hall – has been running for three months now.
New ‘make do and mend’ sewing sessions for parents were also introduced to the session.
They are aimed at helping parents to extend the lives of their children’s school uniform by adjusting over-sized trousers and skirts and undertaking tasks, such as putting buttons on.
All participants will receive a free sewing kit.
Ros Cooke, one of the Repair Cafe organisers, outlined how the project’s kind volunteer experts helped everyone save cash in these challenging times and prevented items going to landfill, keeping the district’s carbon footprint down.
The cafe boasts a team of 15 repairers who carry out their work for free on broken bikes, wobbly chairs, faulty electrical items, snagged jumpers, jammed zips and more.
Coun Laight said schemes like the repair cafe were among the reasons he loved the town so much.
On Saturday, 40 visitors brought along 51 repair jobs and enjoyed tea, coffee and home-made cake while they waited for their items which included a bike, a printer, a Dyson cleaner, a clock, a chainsaw, a video camera and the door mechanism of a microwave oven.
Repairers are unable to touch the electrical aspect of microwaves due to the fire risk.
Half of the items were fixed there-and-then, a quarter had to have a part ordered or were taken away to be fixed at a repairer’s home, by agreement.
Only a quarter of the visitors could not be helped but at least they had a diagnosis.
The cafe received some fantastic feedback from visitors to it.
The next Bromsgrove Repair Cafe will be at All Saints Church Hall from 2pm to 5pm on October 1.
Anyone wanting to find out more can visit facebook.com/repaircafebromsgrove or call Ros on 07804 251731.
