A REPAIR café had a Parliamentary presence at the weekend with a visit from an MP.

Sir Desmond Swayne (Con, New Forest West) dropped in to the Fordingbridge Repair Café – part of the town’s Greener Living project – at the Avonway Community Centre.

A Dutch idea, the café encourages people to repair, recycle and re-use older equipment, rather than buy new.

Sir Desmond signed the Fordingbridge ‘UK repair and re-use Declaration’ and met organisers and repairers during his visit.

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The objective of the Declaration is to make recycling easier, lawful and more affordable, through tax advantages and repair voucher schemes.

The Repair Café meets on the third Saturday of each month in the annexe of Avonway, and encourages people to bring their items to be repaired and stay to help.

This enables them to learn the requisite skills for themselves, so that they can continue repairing, recycling and re-using their goods.