ST CHAD’S church hall in Handforth hosted Transition Wilmslow’s first Repair Café on Saturday.

A total of 14 experienced amateur repairers had volunteered to help, and undertook more than 40 repairs to a range of items.

About 100 people came along, some to watch and see what they might bring another time.

Brian Fox undertook bike repairs, and was not flummoxed by an elderly person’s rollator which the shop had said was not repairable.

Electrical things were the biggest cause of problems; a child’s Gameboy was restored, though a liquidiser was failed as the motor was burnt out.

The sewing team helped to overhaul a sewing machine and repair a much-loved coat, and the waiting public were entertained by a great kitchen team with lots of home-made cake.

Handforth Parish Council helped to sponsor the event, and Cllr Sue Moore and her husband came to help in the café.

Andrew Backhouse, chairman of Transition Wilmslow, said: “It was a real joy to send people away buzzing with the pleasure of having had much loved-things repaired, and ideally knowing how to do it themselves another time.

“It is great to have people reusing/repairing things rather than throwing away and contributing to our destruction of the planet. “

This week Transition Wilmslow will consider whether to run the event again, and the feedback makes it seem likely.

Three churches in the Wilmslow area have said they would like to host a repair café, and people were keen to run one in January. Other offers of help are welcome.