Repair Cafes in Essex - Help Sought

Hi

I work in technology for Essex County Council. We're exploring the viability of supporting repair cafes in Essex as part of sustainability and the circular economy.

Can anyone offer any guidance and experience around setting these up. Or if you're Essex based, is that something you'd have the time and enthusiasm to get involved ?

I and my colleagues would love to hear from you

Andy - direct message me  or reply below if you have any questions.

Parents
  • Hi Andy,

    This morning I've been to a meeting to discuss setting up a Repair Cafe down here in South East Cornwall, and accidentally found myself on the "not a committee" to organise it. As we get into it I'm very happy to swap ideas and experiences.

    The subject of PAT testing came up, not surprisingly, I'll probably end up being the one deciding what our strategy is for that. If any one here has any experiences it would be good to know.

    Cheers,

    Andy

  • I run an occasional repair cafe here in Banbury as part of our Community Action Group.  Of which there are a network across Oxfordshire.
    Our insurance requires 'competent people' to be repairers.  And no we don't want a detailed specific definition of competent.

    So we put anyone who will be doing PAT testing unsupervised through a one day training course.  And then a competent person assesses their repair skills.  If they pass that , then they are good to do PAT testing.

    During the cafe, items are PAT tested on arrival before repairs are attempted (to safeguard the repairers)

    Repaired, if possible.  If not then plugs cut off and item marked do not use.

    A final PAT test once reassembled before handing back to member of the public.

    We also stress that PAT is much more than plugging into the test box and getting an OK light. The visual pre-checks usually find the majority of issues.

Reply
  • I run an occasional repair cafe here in Banbury as part of our Community Action Group.  Of which there are a network across Oxfordshire.
    Our insurance requires 'competent people' to be repairers.  And no we don't want a detailed specific definition of competent.

    So we put anyone who will be doing PAT testing unsupervised through a one day training course.  And then a competent person assesses their repair skills.  If they pass that , then they are good to do PAT testing.

    During the cafe, items are PAT tested on arrival before repairs are attempted (to safeguard the repairers)

    Repaired, if possible.  If not then plugs cut off and item marked do not use.

    A final PAT test once reassembled before handing back to member of the public.

    We also stress that PAT is much more than plugging into the test box and getting an OK light. The visual pre-checks usually find the majority of issues.

Children