Shrewsbury Town Council commits to Repair First Policy
Shrewsbury Town Council is urging residents to think twice before throwing broken items away after formally adopting a new ‘Repair First’ Policy.
The Council has committed to putting repair ahead of replacement wherever possible, building on an approach it already uses across its own operations.
The move has been welcomed by Shrewsbury Repair Café, which says its volunteers successfully repair the majority of the items brought to them.
The Repair Café has been running in Shrewsbury for 9 years, with a team of 56 volunteers and repairers. During August alone, 80 repairs were booked, with electrical items proving the most popular repairs, followed by textiles and clothing.
Liz Evans, Chair & Founder of Shrewsbury Repair Café, and her colleague Pete Martin, attended the Council’s Operations Committee on 9th September and congratulated the Town Council on adopting the policy.
They said the important step was making sure the policy became more than words but led by example in changing the way people think about broken possessions.
“We try to get people to think, ‘That’s broken, but could it be repaired?’” they said. “We’re not just a repair café – we’re a community movement trying to change mindsets as well as habits.”
The Repair Café has an 89 per cent success rate, so where its volunteers cannot repair an item, visitors are signposted towards local businesses that may be able to help. Meeting on the third Saturday of every month at Shrewsbury United Reformed Church, members of the public are encouraged to bring their broken or non-working household items and have them repaired while enjoying refreshments.
The Town Council already repairs and services its own machinery through its in-house engineering team and carries out other repairs where possible. Items that cannot be repaired are recycled where appropriate.
The new policy will see the Council look at how it can further promote repair as part of its own organisation and encourage residents to adopt the same approach.
The Town Council also heard about the international Right to Repair movement, which is campaigning for manufacturers to design products so they can be repaired rather than replaced. The Repair First approach aims to help make repair a more natural part of everyday life in Shrewsbury – reducing waste, supporting local repair businesses and keeping useful items out of landfill.