Repair Café Update
Wednesday 1st February
The repair café has now been operating for 2 years.
We started when Covid restrictions were in place, and repairs were delivered to the repairer’s home. Since August 2021 we have been operating from the Beeding and Bramber Village Hall, usually on the 2nd Saturday of the month, 14:00 - 16:00.
Our aim is to repair things where possible and give people peace of mind about throwing something away, knowing it really is unrepairable.
The café has been remarkably successful. We repaired 50 items in lockdown and then a further 200 in the village hall in 2021. In 2022 we received 360 items and of those, we successfully repaired 260.
The volunteer repairers have enjoyed doing this but need a huge 'Thanks'. They have taken over 150 items home to mend in their own time.
Although we ask for a donation, it is voluntary, and if anybody feels cash-strapped they should not hesitate to bring along repairs – we want to help all parts of the local community, irrespective of your ability to donate.
Anybody who has come along will know that we provide a selection of tasty cakes, good quality teas and coffees, and we don’t aim to make any profit on these, so they are very good value, and indeed some people come along just for cake and a chat.
The Repair Café has a lovely atmosphere of community cooperation.
Many of you have also taken advantage of our sharpening service which has proven very popular. We’ve sharpened over 400 items, ranging from knives and scissors to secateurs, shears, loppers, axes and even scythes. Because of the volume of items, we make a £2 flat charge per item. It’s still good value.
Our advisers will offer advice to improve the use of energy in your home, how to reduce your bills and whether renewable energy, such as solar panels is a worthwhile investment for you and what grants may be available. You can find further details and book an appointment on https://greeningsteyning.org/2030project/energy/
All our volunteers do a fabulous job, and we are lucky to have volunteers who will repair bikes, computers, electronics, watches, clocks, clothes, bags, small pieces of furniture, other wooden items, and mechanical household appliances. We even helped the Grammar School repair their greenhouse louvres at the Towers.
If you aren’t sure whether something is suitable for repair, just email us on [email protected] or post on the BN44 repair café Facebook page.
We’d love more volunteers! If you would like to find out more about volunteering, pop along and see us, or email as above.
We look forward to seeing you in 2023, but note we won’t be there in April because it clashes with Easter.
The BN44 repair gang.