A REPAIR café launched by two climate change resistance groups opened in Oswestry on the weekend.

Extinction Rebellion Oswestry (XR Oswestry) and BRACE Llanfyllin (Building Resistance Against Climate Emergency) welcomed people to Oswestry Memorial Hall to repair clothes, technology and bikes among other things.

The idea of the repair café is to encourage people not to throw away their items and instead try to make them last longer.

Alison Alexander is a member of BRACE Llanfyllin, and said she believes events like this one are a good way to introduce the topic of the climate emergency to people.

She said: “We have had people coming along and taking an interest in the climate emergency stuff – I think this is a softer way of introducing it to people, because it can be quite scary for some people.

“We meet a lot of people who feel as though they can’t do anything to help and feel almost as though their hands are tied.

“Everybody can do a little something – I’m not saying that we don’t also need a big political shift to help us tackle this, but I think everything starts with little bits of work, and when all that is put together it can start to make a big change.

“It’s also getting people into the mindset which means they don’t always throw things away and instead give more thought to what they’re buying.

“Basically, we need to buy less and make things last longer. For each item we don’t buy, there are less raw materials being used.”

Volunteers gave up their time to use their skills to help others, whether that be carrying out the repairs, or working in the kitchen providing drinks and refreshments.

Alison was pleased to see the response to the event not only from the people coming along as customers but also from people offering their time to help.

“We had all started to hear about repair cafes and we wanted to put something together between the two groups,” she added.

“We’ve had a great response to it with a lot of people coming through the door and spending time in here while the repairs take place.

“There has been a steady flow of people all day and the café itself was full all morning.

“We had a lot of volunteers here showing people around and helping them out with form filling which has been helpful.

“We also had six volunteers in the kitchen serving up the drinks and homemade cakes.

“A lot of people have done their bit to do little things and that’s what you need really to make something like this happen.

“We had a lot of people volunteering to do the repairs simply because they wanted to share their skills, while others did it because they can remember a time when we repaired everything, so it’s quite nostalgic for them.

“So it appeals to lots of different people.”

The repair café is set to take place on the first Saturday of the month between 12pm and 3pm.

The venue will alternate between Oswestry and Llanfyllin each month.