Bedford repair shop teaching 'lost skills'

Organisers say dozens of items have been saved from landfill at previous workshops

Volunteers fed up with the trend of broken household items being thrown away are teaching people how to repair them for free.

Moth-eaten jumpers, broken radios, leaf blowers and a stuffed rocking horse are among the items saved from landfill by the The BedPop Repair Shop in Bedford.

Organiser Katie Allen said the group was filling a gap as "repair shops just don't exist any more".

She said it helped the environment and brought back "lost skills".

"Sadly some things just can't be fixed as they are designed to be thrown away, but often older items are easier to repair because they were designed to be fixed, and we have saved a couple of ancient vacuum cleaners this way," Ms Allen said.

A "teddy hospital" will be on offer as well as repairs carried out on items like clothes, bags and toys

Volunteers will "tackle" most repairs on items like toasters

Saturday will be the third time the shop has opened its doors following two successful runs. It is based at the Tavistock Community Centre.

Daniel Churchill, a technical engineer, is one of the volunteers who helps repair people's items.

"We're seeing more and more of these repair cafes pop up; we've stumbled on one while on holiday in Germany, and a friend is fixing at one in Cardiff in reaction to our success in Bedford. The demand is there," he said.

'Helps our environment'

The purpose of the shop was to "empower everybody to make their own repairs, sharing skills and giving everyone the confidence to wield a screwdriver, or a needle and thread, and to continue their repairs at home," said Mr Churchill.

"This not only saves us all the expense of replacing our goods, but helps our environment one product at a time."

Other volunteers are on hand to help and Ms Allen said: "They'll talk you through it; if you have an old sewing machine you don't know how to use, bring it along and we'll show you."

Technical engineers are on hand to try and mend items like radios, vacuum cleaners, lamps, leaf blowers and blenders