A REPAIR café in Peasedown St John has celebrated its 500th successful repair after six years of operation.

The Peasedown Repair Café, which is part of Bath Share and Repair, opened in June 2019 and typically operates once a month. It is staffed by volunteer repairers who will try to repair anything that is brought in, within reason.

Items brought in to be repaired can sometimes have sentimental value, although these items could just as well provide useful functions and just need an extension to their working life.

The most frequent items to be handed to Peasedown Repair Café are household appliances such as toasters, vacuum cleaners and kettles, although the repairers at the Café also work on a vast range of items, from sewing repairs to wooden items, ornaments, bikes and clocks.

Since Peasedown Repair Café started, more than 350 people have used the service, bringing in 835 items for repair. Sometimes items brought in may be beyond repair but that’s so with only about a quarter of them.

Repairers also may not have the spares to effectively repair the item that day, but can give advice on what to do or they ask the person to buy the spare part and bring it in next month when it gets repaired.

Peasedown Repair Café say that the philosophy behind repair cafés is that useable items are often being thrown away and replaced by an expensive new item when it could have gone on working with a relatively straightforward repair.

Different repairs will inevitably take different lengths of time to complete. Some repairs may only take less than five minutes, while others may need a couple of hours work on them.

The Repair Cafés also encourage owners to see how the repairs are done so that they can try and do repairs at home in the future.

Those using this service may opt to drop in and register their item for repair before then having refreshments as they wait for a repairer to become available. Repairs are usually done in order of arrival but it does depend on a repairer with the appropriate skills being available.

There is no charge for the service but it relies on donations to keep things going, so that repair cafés may be able to buy tools, adhesives, fuses, and other support expenses.

Bath Share and Repair who run eleven Repair Cafés across Bath And North East Somerset and west Wiltshire. There are two other Repair Cafés in the Somer Valley area, with one being in High Littleton, which operate at the Scout Hall, and the other being located in Farmborough at the Memorial Hall.

Bath Share and Repair shop also have repairers available on some week-days but sessions there must be booked in advance. They also house a library of things, where people can borrow items that they might use only use on very rare occasions.

The next Peasedown Repair Café session will take place on Saturday, June 28.