Bring broken items to the free Maidstone Repair Café at Lockmeadow on Saturday 7 November, 10am to 2pm. No booking, plus wreaths, gift-wrapping and carols.

Volunteers will mend broken clothes, electricals, furniture, bikes and tools for free at Lockmeadow this Saturday, alongside a zone of ideas for a less wasteful Christmas.

Maidstone Climate Action Network (CAN) is running its Repair Café and Sustainable Christmas CAN Zone on Saturday 7 November, from 10am to 2pm, in the Market Hall. Entry is free and there is no need to book (Maidstone Borough Council).

What you can do at the Christmas zone

  • make gift boxes from waste paper with artist Cas Holmes
  • join a fabric gift-wrapping workshop
  • make wreaths from scrap textiles with Sue Pritchard
  • buy upcycled treasures from Reclaimed Christmas, which raises money for domestic abuse services
  • see angels made from broken glass and crockery by Ania’s Angels
  • swap an unwanted gift for something new to you at the Re-Gifting table
  • hear carols from Kettle Bridge Concertinas and The Ocean Blue Irregulars

Cobnuts Steiner Kindergarten and Kent Family Hub will run activities for families. Kent County Council will give kerbside recycling advice and free food caddy liners. You can also bring old electricals for Suez’s pink recycling bins.

Also there

  • tool sharpening
  • hand-made garden furniture and planters in reclaimed timber from CJS Garden Enhancements
  • The Repurposing Shed
  • the FutureMakers Festival
  • One You Kent
  • Maidstone Sling Library
  • NHS walking aids
  • The New Poets Society

What the organisers say

Sally Edwards, who organises the Repair Café, said: “Christmas is when we buy, wrap and throw away more than at any other time of year. Our Repair Café volunteers keep broken items out of the bin every month.”

She added: “Bring along an item for repair, pick up some ideas for Christmas and enjoy the carols.”

Cllr Rachel Rodwell, the council’s Cabinet Member for Nature and Climate Transition, said: “Let’s fill our stockings and not the landfill!”

What it means for you

  • Bring the broken item with you. The council lists clothes, electricals, furniture, bikes, tools and household items.
  • Bring old electricals too, even if they are past fixing, for the pink bins.
  • Bring an unwanted gift for the Re-Gifting table and pick up something new to you.

For the rest of the season, see our guides to the Maidstone Christmas market and the Christmas lights switch-on on 19 November.