East Barnwell Community Centre is the venue for the latest repair café – the event where you can get stuff fixed by volunteer repairers for free.
It could be a broken kettle, lamp, clock or an item of clothing – you can take it along to the community centre on Newmarket Road on Sunday between 1pm and 4pm.
Cafes do repairs and also bring people together. They save money and reduce waste and emissions by extending the life of items. Your item will be seen to by an experienced volunteer repairer for free. They will pinpoint the problem and try to fix it there and then for you, or let you know what spare parts to get for when you come back next time.
Repair cafes extend the life of items, plus they save money by reducing waste and emissions. The average repair cafe saves 450kg of CO2, about the same as driving from Lands End to John O'Groats and back again.
Most importantly repair cafes bring people together.
“We have all sorts of people offering to help to repair things from electrical and mechanical engineers to textile and woodwork hobbyists,” said Caitlin Herman, Abbey People sustainability co-ordinator. “Our volunteer repairers are keen to share their skills, stop things going to landfill and reduce the impact that buying new stuff has on the environment. In the UK we produce the second highest amount of e-waste per person in the world - it’s shocking! Repair Cafes are a great way to reduce your environmental impact and get involved with your local community.”
Abbey People Trustee and local resident Mike Kovacs said: "Abbey People's first 'trial' repair café, in early 2023, fostered great partnerships and positive community relations between many different individuals and charities working in and around Abbey ward. It also diverted expensive products and clothing from landfill, and avoided people paying to replace very fixable items.
“I'm excited now that we have a way to keep these rolling for the next couple years, to see the incredible benefit this can have in the community - socially, economically, and environmentally."
Abbey People is working in partnership with Cambridge Carbon Footprint to run this repair cafe.
Book your items in using the link here.
