Shops in Portsmouth: Repair Cafe to open new hub in Cascades Shopping Centre this weekend including city's first Library of Things

Run by the Portsmouth Repair Cafe, the facility will store items like DIY tools, kitchen appliances, camping gear, party supplies, sports equipment and more for communal use. The ethos of the enterprise is to help people save money, space and carbon. Annual membership to access the library will cost £1 to make the service accessible.

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The new hub officially opens on Saturday, May 13 and will also be the permanent home of the repair cafe. The service formerly ran as a monthly ‘pop-up’ session in North End Baptist Church where volunteers helped people to fix their possessions. The new premises was secured thanks to a fundraising campaign which raised more than £14,000.

Speaking to The News earlier this year, Portsmouth Repair Cafe founder Clare Seek said: ‘Obviously with the cost of living crisis, it's brilliant to be able to borrow things rather than have to buy them and store them and look after them yourself. The nature of a repair cafe is people bring in their stuff - and its electricals, fabric, toys, bikes - all different kinds of things.

‘If we can’t help you fix your drill, there’s often no commercial avenues. The only option really for you at the minute is to buy one or have a friend that you might borrow from, but most people in the city just don’t seem to have those contacts or feel a bit nervous about asking.’

You can find out more about borrowing from the library of volunteering by visiting the library’s Facebook page.

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