Sustainable Wallingford’s first Repair Café was held at Centre 70 on Saturday, April 14.

It was a lovely sunny day and around 50 local residents attended, most bringing a broken item to fix.

The services offered included tool sharpening and bicycle maintenance, with minor repairs for electrical or electronic items and clothes or textiles.

All the expert repairers were volunteers keen to share their expertise and skills for free.

In particular, the electrical repairers brought a vast range of tools, dismantling appliances to identify the fault and then rectifying it where they

could or providing advice, for example, which new part was required.

Among the successful repairs were a sewing machine, a tent and the bag it was in, toasters and an electric heater as well as numerous pairs of gardening shears and secateurs that were sharpened.

Delighted attendees were impressed by the level of service and skills on offer and everyone attending thought it was a brilliant idea.

Lorna Bonthrone, the organiser from Sustainable Wallingford – who also organises Sustainable Wallingford’s swap shops – was pleased with the turnout as there was a constant flow of items to fix and most of the repairers were busy throughout the session.

The amazing positive feedback was overwhelming and has made all the hard work worthwhile.

Plus, some of the visitors told us they would have binned the items if they hadn’t been fixed and that is one of the reasons for running such a Fix-it session.

The other reason is to share skills, showing how easy many repairs can be.

Hot drinks and homemade cakes were also on offer to visitors so that they could sit with a snack in the sunshine or chat to the repairers whilst waiting for their item to be fixed.

The next Repair Café in Wallingford will be on Saturday, June 30, in Centre 70, but you don’t have to wait until then as there are similar events running somewhere is Oxfordshire most weekends over the summer months.

A full listing of similar events is available from the Community Action Group (CAG) website at cagoxfordshire.org.uk/news

So, next time your favourite gadget, toy or other household item gets broken, stops working or needs mending, check if there is a repair café near you and take it along.

You could be pleasantly surprised, save yourself some cash and be helping the environment.