We’re encouraging residents to repair or reuse items before throwing them away. Drop-in repair sessions are being held across Central Bedfordshire to encourage fixing items rather than binning and buying new ones.
What is a repair café?
A friendly community space to bring broken electronics, textiles, or small household electrical items for repair and mending. This saves you money replacing a coffee machine or camera when it can be fixed, keeps fixable items out of landfill, and helps to create a circular economy. Run by volunteers with specialist interests and expertise, you can sit alongside the repairer to learn more about your item and share skills for how you could repair it in future.
How can you get involved?
They are usually free to attend and some may require you to sign up in advance. Repair cafés welcome volunteers with skills for repairing different items, as well as those who can help with the administrative side and running of the café.
Local repair cafés
- Totally Leighton Buzzard runs the repair café on the last Saturday of each month (excluding August and December) from 10:30am until 1:30pm
- SHARE: Flitwick and Ampthill: Sign up to the monthly newsletter via its website for details on upcoming repair cafés and Library of Things (LoTs)
- Bedford Repair Café has been running events since 2016; upcoming dates are available via its website
There is also a local Dunstable Men in Sheds group – a project aimed at men aged 50+ to bring men together to put practical skills to use and encourage them to be socially active.
Find a repair group across the UK.
Setting up your own repair café
Find out how to set up your own repair café.
If you are hosting a repair session or something similar, or would like to start one, please email begreen@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk to let us know.
Our ambition
Our Sustainability Plan, adopted in 2020 and refreshed in 2024, sets out a clear ‘road map’ of commitments and projects to work towards — supporting the Central Bedfordshire area to be net zero carbon by 2030. In 2024, we were the second local council to pass a UK Repair and Reuse Declaration motion supported by the Restart Project. This calls for a stronger fixing economy and championing reuse to tackle climate change and support community-based sustainability projects.