This month’s Repair Cafe Monmouth held on Sunday November 20 at the Rockfield Park Community Centre was buzzing with people bringing in broken items for the volunteer experts to try to fix.

One pleased attendee said: “Can’t praise this group enough. I took my sewing machine in this afternoon, and one of the repairers had it working properly in no time.”

Eight volunteer repairers worked on lamps, torches, three toasters, two vacuum cleaners, radio/CD players, electric heater, watches and other household items. ‘There-and-then’ sewing repairs to clothes (and a gazebo!) were also done. Around 30 people attended and 24 items were worked on, while tea and cakes were served.

Floods resulted in a stuttering start to this initiative in early 2020 and then Covid interrupted efforts for some time. However, 2022 has seen a resurgence of activities and, with eight monthly events this year supported by a recent push on the marketing front by ACE Monmouth and Repair Cafe volunteers, things are really starting to gain momentum. Look out for posters around Monmouth.

The Repair Cafe is part of ACE Monmouth, a Monmouth Town Council partnership, which is tackling climate change by bringing the people together.

Repairing household items saves them from heading into landfill, and at the same time teaches people how to make such repairs themselves.

It also reduces the impact ‘buying new’ has on climate change, not to mention the cost savings to individuals by not having to fork out for something new.

Monmouth Repair Cafe is one of 50 in Wales that operates under the umbrella of Repair Cafe Wales which is part of the Welsh Government’s Circular Economy initiative.

You can follow both Repair Cafe Monmouth and ACE Monmouth on Facebook for updates and events.