A CAFE with an environmentally friendly twist will soon be opening its doors in Conwy.

Repair Cafe Conwy will have a ‘soft launch’ at Conwy Comrades Club on Wednesday, September 8 from 4 - 7pm.

The Friends of the Earth-backed project, organised through Repair Cafe Wales, will differ from your standard cafe thanks to an important idea to help stop broken items ending up in landfill.

Repair cafes are run by volunteers, some of whom are ‘fixers’, who will try to repair broken items that people bring in.

Fixers can share their skills, empowering people to carry out their own repairs in the future.

The cafe will also give advice on what kind of spare parts somebody needs to buy in order for volunteers to then fix their items.

Richard Hatton, who helped set the cafe up with partner Karin Bruns, explained that the September launch will be open to volunteers only, ahead of expanding to the general public at a later date.

He said: "We invite people with things that are broken and are prepared to bring them forward, and we will try to assemble volunteers capable of carrying out a wide range of repairs on all sorts of goods. 

"If we can fix it, we will. If we can’t fix it on site, we’ll give advice as to how to get it fixed. And if it can’t be fixed, we’ll say it can’t be fixed.

"We book a venue – ideally, we’re looking for three venues because we don’t have any funding; we’re looking for donations on the day – and advertise it and invite people to show up.

"When you show up, there is a registration process for participants. You sit down with your repairer at the table, discuss the problem, a repairer will say ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘do this’, ‘do that’. You can have a cup of tea, a piece of cake, and then we invite people to make a donation at the end.

"We’re just going to be open to the volunteers in the first place. We invite volunteers to bring their own kit to fix, so we’ll bring along some things to fix and see if any other volunteers can fix them."

Karin also encouraged anyone keen to get involved to put their names forward, irrespective of whether they can offer much help fixing belondings.

"You don’t have to have technical skills – you can welcome people, or help with marketing or with our Facebook page – there’s all kinds of skills needed," she said.

"All comers are welcome," Richard added. 

"We take everybody from greeters to tea pourers, to clock fixers and woodworkers – the whole gamut."

Alison Shaw, who helped Richard and Karin set up Repair Cafe Conwy along with her partner, Tony Franks, added: "We throw away vast amounts of stuff; even things with almost nothing wrong seem beyond repair.

“The trouble is, many of us have forgotten that we can repair things ourselves, or we can't remember how."

There are more than 1,500 Repair Cafes across the globe, with many in the UK.

The volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products is reduced as a result, and can save people money.

The Repair Cafe also lets people see their possessions in a new light, and once again appreciate their value, as well as changing people's mindsets - essential to kindling enthusiasm for a sustainable society.

If you think you have skills you can offer, or would like to help behind the scenes, please email repair.cafe.conwy@gmail.com or register your availability and capabilities for the Conwy Repair Cafe at www.repaircafewales.org/volunteer-form.

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