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'We've saved 800 items from landfill in a year'

Helen McCarthy
BBC News, Leicester
Jo Liversidge three men fix clocks at tables in a repair cafe Jo Liversidge
The volunteers have helped repair a variety of items from the practical to the sentimental

Members of The Fix It Group 23 are getting ready for their largest ever repair cafe.

The event has been organised by the group, based in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire, to coincide with World Environment Day on Thursday.

An estimated 800 items have been saved from landfill by the repair volunteers over the past year, the group estimates.

These have a mix of practical items, including scooters from a local school, and others with sentimental value, including a vintage one-armed bandit and "a doll wearing the clothing of a much-loved auntie who had died as a child".

Jo Liversidge John repairs a suitcase, he's concentrating hard Jo Liversidge
Skilled volunteers are led by John Fitzgerald, 67, who founded the group after being inspired by BBC One's The Repair Shop

Group founder John Fitzgerald worked for Royal Mail for 20 years but had always enjoyed fixing neighbours' household items.

He said: "I noticed how many people didn't have anyone to fix things for them. A lot of people haven't got tools anymore.

"The old handy person who had a little corner shop where you could take something in to be fixed are gone."

Mr Fitzgerald said the group had grown beyond his wildest dreams with about 20 repairers giving up their time for free every month.

"To take Winston Churchill's phrase: never has so much been achieved by so few," he said.

20 volunteers pose in a community hall
Jo Liversidge (third from the right on the front row) organises the repair cafes, which are growing in size

Jo Liversidge is the group's events organiser and loves helping the local community, for example when a primary school needed all its scooters fixing or a nearby care home brought along its broken bingo machine.

She said: "We are restoring stories not just objects. We have a barometer from a Hull trawlerman, a camel saddle stool from Egypt, a 'dead mans penny' from World War One and a vintage one-armed bandit. Each has a tale.

"Sometimes people are embarrased [to ask for help], but you're stopping that thing from going into landfill."

Residents cheer with the electronic bingo number generator in the forefront of the picture
Residents at HC-One Mountview Care Home are pleased their bingo number generator is working again

Residents at HC-One Mountview Care Home in Rothley were delighted when their bingo number generator was fixed by the group.

Care worker Annette Bunney said: "It stopped not so long ago at number 70 and we couldn't get to the end of the game.

"We found the fix it group and they are amazing.

"It stops us throwing stuff into landfill and really in this day and age we really do need to consider that."

The group's World Environment Day event takes places at Mountsorrel Memorial Hall between 09:00 and 13:00 BST on Thursday.

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