Mayor Andy Moore visits Newbury and Thatcham Repair Café on the movement’s 15-year anniversary

Newbury’s mayor visited last month’s edition of the Newbury and Thatcham Repair Café to help celebrate 15 years of the Repair Café movement.

The global movement celebrated its 15-year anniversary on October 18.

The very first repair café was opened by Martine Postma in Amsterdam in 2009 and now there are more than 2,500 of them around the world.

This milestone was marked on October 27 by the Newbury and Thatcham Repair Café, and mayor Andy Moore visited the café alongside his wife, the mayoress Sheila Moore.

After opening the event, the pair chatted to the visitors having their items repaired and the skilled volunteers doing the repair work.

A repair café spokesperson said: “Once again, there was a wide variety of items brought in for repair including an 83-year-old teddy bear to be carefully patched up and duvet covers to be mended.

“The very busy electrical and electronic repairers rose to the challenge of mending, amongst other items, toasters, kettles, vacuum cleaners, shredders, a lawn mower and a strimmer.

“General repairs included knives and shears being sharpened, and a litter picker repair was completed.”

“It’s not only visitors who leave smiling after coming to the event, but also the volunteers.

“As one volunteer said at the end of the event, they love ‘the opportunity for another fun afternoon of problem-solving and mending, and the great company’.

“So it’s a win-win for both the visitors and volunteers.”

The next Newbury and Thatcham Repair Café event is on Sunday, December 1, from 10am to 12.30pm (last items to be checked in at noon) at Frank Hutchings Community Hall in Thatcham.