It was a bright and sunny morning on 2nd April when The Pump House Project opened its Repair Café doors for the first time. A group of 12 volunteer repairers with expertise in upholstery, electronics, computer software, carpentry, tool sharpening and sewing came together to see what Faringdon had to offer.
In our very first session we received 22 items for repair, ranging from an enormous flat screen TV, to an heirloom Kenwood chef, to vacuum cleaners and adjustable walking sticks. Out of the 60Kg. of items we received (we weigh all items coming in), 42Kg were repaired at the café itself, or repaired later with spare parts bought for the job. This represents the amount of items saved from landfill, and is one of the key measurables we are using to judge our impact. The strongest feedback we had from both repairers and people bringing items in, is how enjoyable it all was. Each item was PAT tested (if electrical) and carefully logged into our records. Everyone bringing an item in learned something about the maintenance of it, and repairers learned from each other on how address the common faults of toaster malfunction, or otherwise.
We are building up a small cadre of volunteer repairers for our Faringdon based repair café – If this sounds like something you would be interested in being involved in (and you have at least a moderate ability to fix things around the house) please get in touch! Call us on 07546905230 or email sarah.stoves@thepumphouseproject.org.uk as we would love to hear from you.
As well as repairing items that might otherwise go to landfill, the Faringdon repair café is a part of a wider movement across the UK which is trying to change the throw away culture unfortunately designed into many of the items we buy today, and instead promote the concept of “right to repair” which will become more and more necessary as we move towards a carbon neutral economy, albeit one small step at a time!
Given the success of our repair café we are planning more regular dates for our next series of meetings:
Sunday 29th May 10am-1 pm
Sunday 26th June 10am-1 pm
Sunday 31st July 10am – 1 pm
Bring your household items along to the Pump House Project on Swan Lane, look out for the sign board!!
