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In response to the climate emergency in Arundel, as declared by the town council last year, a grant of £1,000 has been agreed to support the development of an Arundel Repair Café.

Arundel Town Council has been engaging with other organisations and businesses to reduce the causes of climate change through a number of small steps ever since it declared a climate emergency in the town.

The new repair café has been given financial support as it will provide a resource for residents to re-use and repair broken items.

Tom Gray, who has helped set up the venture, said: "Repair Café Arundel hopes to help the people of our town to keep and look after their possessions, thus reducing the amount of unnecessary waste to landfill.

Arundel mayor Tony Hunt with Tom Gray, left, and Roy Smith. Picture: Nigel Cull

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"It is also an opportunity to bring together our unique talented community to teach and learn from one another to live in a more sustainable way.

"The Repair Café is entirely volunteer led, so we need help from the Arundel community to help support the running of it. If you can spare a few hours a month to help with repairs of items, front-of-house organisation, or run / supply the café with cakes, tea and coffee, please get in touch at [email protected], or find us on Facebook or Instagram."

Housed in the Norfolk Centre, in Mill Road, the monthly repair café is a not-for-profit, community-led event, promoting sustainability by repairing things. This could include small electrical items like toasters and kettles, bikes, jewellery, computers and crockery – take along your broken items and the volunteer experts will do their best to repair them.

The initial idea was successfully trialled by organisers Pip Young and Roy Smith at a Sustainability and Fairtrade market in December 2021. Tom then came on board to help set it up.

The repair café runs from 10am to 12.30pm on the third Saturday of every month, the same day as the successful Arundel Farmers Market.

The complementary pop-up Sustainability Market, offering ethical products for sale including Fairtrade, upcycled, vintage, and other items helping to reduce our carbon footprint, also takes place in the Norfolk Centre on selected dates, the next being Saturday, December 17.

Climate emergency: Repair Café Arundel gets £1,000 boost