Repair cafe saves 91 items from landfill in first three months

A TEASMADE, a vintage labeller and a bat detector were among items saved from landfill in the first 90 days of the Henley Repair Café.

Founder David Stephenson said the response of the town to the initiative had surpassed his expectations and that he hoped to recruit more volunteers to keep up with demand.

In the first three months of operation, 91 items of 147 that were brought into the café were successfully repaired, while 22 were deemed unrepairable and 24 were either still undergoing work or needed a spare part.

The café opened in June, with queues forming outside the YMCA pavilion, off Lawson Road, before the official opening time.

The costs of the café is covered by donations and it raised an average of £262 at each event in the first 90 days, generating an average surplus of £100, which was used to cover start-up costs.

Mr Stephenson, who set up the café with Malcolm Hayes with the help of Henley Town Council, said: “One of the challenges you have, particularly when you first open up a repair café, is you don’t know who is going to be there on the first day and what they’re going to bring. By some lucky coincidence, we seem to have had the right number of repairers with the right skills coming so I think we had a bit of luck on our side with that happening.

“It has turned into a nice social event. People come in and they register what they have for repair and then, while they’re waiting for the items to come up, they sit down and have a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of cake and everybody has a chat.” Mr Stephenson said he was looking to recruit a volunteer seamstress and jewellery repairer to help fill gaps when volunteers take holidays.

He said: “The demand has been pretty consistent but you’re never quite sure of what the mix is going to be of what comes in.”

The next repair café will be held on November 15. If you want to volunteer, email henleyrepaircafe@yahoo.com