If it’s broken, don’t throw it away yet – perhaps it can be fixed at the Woking repair café!

Woking Environment Action (WEAct) holds a repair café every month when volunteers offer free repairs for electrical, mechanical, furniture, toys, clothing and textiles.

It alternates between four local venues. The next is on Saturday 12 October at Andy's Community Café in St Andrew’s Church, Goldsworth Park, where Woking repair café was launched in June 2023. The three other Woking repair café venues are currently Old Woking Community Centre, St Mary’s Community Centre in Byfleet, and Trinity Methodist Church, Brewery Road.

Patrick Coad, community and youth worker at St Andrew’s, said: “We usually have around 70 visitors coming with the hope of restoring their cherished items. We look forward to welcoming them with our warm hospitality and our supportive community.

“At St. Andrew’s, we’ve just celebrated Harvest – a time of thanksgiving, sharing and generosity. The repair café invites us to deepen our commitment to caring for the Earth by reducing waste and offering hope and renewal, reflecting the good news that the church is called to share.”

Janey Jux, of WEAct, said: “Across the 16 events we have now held we have had 946 visitors and were able to fix 695 items – over 73%. We identified another 138 items as fixable by others, taking the total items ‘saved’ to over 88%.

“Our data now shows we have prevented 1,625kg of waste going into landfill as well as reducing greenhouse gases by 17,175kg. That’s roughly equivalent to driving 42,900 miles – around the world 1.7 times!”

Janey explained that there were months of planning before the Woking repair café was launched last year. “Woking Borough Council asked WEAct in January 2023 if we would be interested in starting a repair café in Woking. We asked for volunteers on local social media and through an article in the Woking News & Mail.”

Ellen Pirie, also of WEAct, revealed: “Feedback from volunteers was that we would be most accessible for people if we ran it in various neighbourhood areas of Woking rather than the town centre. St Andrew’s contacted us to say they had been thinking of starting its own repair café, so we teamed with them as our first venue.

“To give our fixers a chance to assess what’s coming in and make sure they bring the right tools, we ask visitors to email [email protected] beforehand with what they plan to bring.”

The items repaired have included electrical items such as vacuum cleaners, lamps, coffee grinders, CD players, radios, toasters and hairdryers. Among other items fixed were a chair and a small coffee table, various items of clothing, a doll with a broken arm and a toy helicopter.

Janey Jux added: “Our fixers have great skills and are riotously enthusiastic. They also gave advice to visitors and have kindly agreed to take a few items home to finish off.”

The Woking Repair Café on 12 October runs from 10am to 1pm. Doors close at 12.30pm. The venue, Andy's Community Café, is within St Andrew’s Church at Goldsworth Park Centre, near Waitrose. There is free parking for three hours.

Only items that can be carried by one person can be accepted and no petrol-driven items should be brought for safety reasons.

Details of other upcoming Woking repair café dates and locations plus other details can be found online at wokingenvironmentaction.com/woking-repair-cafe