Bath’s repair hub keeps household essentials in use

In Bath, a shared repair hub is keeping useful household things in circulation. Its first year on Lower Bristol Road brought more than 1,300 repair jobs, with volunteers fixing three quarters of the items, according to Share and Repair.

The charity also recorded more than 3,700 loans from its Library of Things. Pressure washers, carpet cleaners and drills were among the most borrowed, giving neighbours access to equipment they might only need occasionally.

Alongside repairs and lending, its HomeKIT scheme passed 360 small electrical items to people on low incomes. In a separate account, the team describes one recipient using a donated soup maker to cook for other residents after moving into a new home.

These are the charity’s own figures, and a quarter of the items brought for repair were not fixed. The hub also needs a permanent home because its current building faces redevelopment.

Even so, those repaired appliances and shared tools are already helping neighbours make more of what they have.

Sources

• Share and Repair — the hub’s first-year results
• Share and Repair HomeKIT — appliances helping residents settle into their homes