Following our successful first Repair Café in April, Planet South Bank is putting on another event on Saturday 21 October (10.00am-1.00pm) at Clements Hall in York.

The date falls in International Repair Café Week 2017 (14-22 October) when communities around the world will be organising similar events. There are now over 1,300 Repair Cafes operating globally, with 92 in the UK.

Monitoring by the Repair Café International Foundation shows that, in the past year, approximately 250,000 kilos of waste were saved collectively and that the most popular items for fixing were bicycles, vacuum cleaners and kettles.

Our experience from our April event confirms the popularity of small electrical items; chairs, lamps, clocks, jewellery and textiles were other popular items brought in for repair. Overall, we managed to repair 60 items, with only five items found to be not fixable at all.

As before, we will be relying on volunteer experts to do the repairing, and would like to hear from anyone with appropriate skills  to help us. We have got some volunteers already, but could do with more to help with electricals and electronics (computers, DVD/CD players, etc), as well as general repairs (eg furniture), clothing and accessories. To volunteer, contact info@planetsouthbank.org.uk.

Once again we will be able to offer bicycle repairs, thanks to the team at Ey-Up Cycling, so if your bike needs mending, please bring it along.

If you have anything in particular that you want fixing, it is helpful (but not essential) to let us know in advance – it gives our repair team a better idea of what to bring. Please bear in mind that our repairers cannot take on very lengthy or complicated repair jobs at the café, as this wouldn’t be fair on others waiting. If we can’t provide help on the day, the repairers will often suggest alternatives.

There is, of course, some waiting at the event – and that’s what the café bit is about! Visitors are given a number on entry by our friendly receptionists, and while you wait your turn there’s a chance to have coffee and cake and talk to other people. We’ll also provide colouring materials to keep children occupied.

If you are in to home baking and would like to support this entirely volunteer-run event, we would be very pleased to receive donations of cakes, buns, scones or pastries. Last time, some amazing cakes were donated  but we were unable to cater for people with allergies, so any gluten-free, nut-free or dairy-free options would be especially welcome.

The Repair Café will open at 10.00am and finish at 1.00pm, allowing us time to clear up and get ready for our Recycling Talk at 2.00pm. This will include presentations by Terracycle and i am reusable and will, we  hope, be the start of an initiative/pilot for greater plastics recycling in this area. It is open to all and we are particularly keen for local traders to get involved – if you can’t come on Saturday (we know you’re probably busy trading!) a follow up event will be held to get your views.

The best way to get updates on the Repair Cafe is to join the Facebook event for it; but we will post further information on our website too. You can also follow us on Twitter @YorkPlanetSBank

Venue: Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York YO23 1BW (opposite Scarcroft School). Please attend on foot or by public transport