And a by-product to the Men’s Shed project we may also be welcoming a Repair Café to Banstead.

Local resident, Chris Shaw is working with Age Concern Banstead to set up a Repair Café in the Men’s Shed building. Most of you will have seen the TV programme, Repair Shop, where people bring along a favourite possession that needs to be repaired or restored.

The TV experts then restore the item to its former glory. A Repair Café follows the same principle. Local volunteers with a range of skills, repair and restore broken equipment and  treasured possessions to their former glory. The service is free although donations are welcomed from those that can afford.

Chris has recently retired from a high-level marketing and management career but has always been a keen mender and fixer. He says that throughout his life his friends and family have been bringing him things to fix. He now wants to use his experiences and skills to give something back to the community by establishing a Repair Café in Banstead.

He has already assembled a team of eight volunteer “fixers” covering a variety of trades and is currently working with Nick Pulsford  to agree an arrangement to collaborate with the Men’s Shed team to offer a repair service to Banstead.

Readers should note that there is already a network of over 3,000 Repair Cafes throughout the world manned by over 45,000 volunteers, including locally in Redhill and Epsom. The movement started in Amsterdam in 2009.

Wincanton Repair Café

As well as helping people to repair items, the concept also embraces reducing waste.

To find out more look at this video produced by Bristol’s Repair Café:

The Banstead Repair Café is still in the early stages of development, but we will bring you further information when the café is ready to launch.