On Sunday 2nd July, the Wirral Repair Café was launched at the Wirral Deen Centre in Birkenhead. Since the first meeting at WEN in March, Barbara Gleave and Katherine Jenner have led efforts to assemble a talented and enthusiastic team of volunteers who are able to repair items such as laptops and phones, clothing, costume jewellery, toys and electrical appliances. There are also volunteers to welcome visitors and serve food and drink in the café.

There was a tremendous turnout, with more than 100 visitors and 42 items brought for repair. Of these, 15 were fully repaired and 13 were partially repaired, or the visitor was given advice or asked to return with a part or when the appropriate tools were available. Only 14 items could not be repaired. An excellent result. Some of the more unexpected items brought for repair were a 48-year-old Teasmade found in a skip and a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet!

The Mayor of Wirral, Jerry Williams, cut the ribbon to officially open Wirral Repair Café. Also joining the launch event were Mick Whitley, MP for Birkenhead; the three Councillors for Birkenhead and Tranmere – Cllr Pat Cleary, Cllr Amanda Onwuemene and Cllr Ewan Tomeny; and Cllr Liz Grey, Chair of Wirral Council’s Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee. Claire Minter, a journalist from BBC Radio Merseyside, visited too and recorded interviews with visitors and repairers, which were broadcast in a feature on Lisa Marrey’s breakfast show the following Friday.

Wirral Repair Cafe takes place on the first Sunday of every month, from 2pm to 4pm, at Wirral Deen Centre. Take along your broken item and one of the volunteers will fix it or give advice on where to buy parts that are needed to carry out the repair (which can be done at a future session). You can also have a chat with the repairers and other visitors over coffee and cake, and pick up some tips on how to carry out your own repairs. Repairs and refreshments are free of charge but donations are welcome.

Please follow Wirral Repair Cafe on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to see updates and reminders prior to the next event. All contact details can be found on the Wirral Repair Café page on the Repair Café website:

https://www.repaircafe.org/en/cafe/wirral-repair-cafe

If you have any questions, or would like to volunteer, please email wirralrepaircafe@gmail.com

On 3rd July we attended the Wirral Primary Science Network conference at Eureka! Science and Discovery in Seacombe. It was wonderful to get the opportunity to talk with headteachers and Wirral Eco School teachers about the great local environmental STEM activities that schools can provide and get involved with.

We had an lovely afternoon on 6th July at Heswall Primary School’s Plastic Pledge Market. We joined lots of local organisations and businesses as the school children and their parents discovered how they could take the pledge to reduce plastic waste. KS1 children opened the event with a Plastic Pledge song and there were plastic-free homewares and gifts for sale and a plastic-free cafe serving tea and coffee. The children set up their own information stalls about reducing plastic use and had collected pre-loved board games, children’s clothes, bikes and scooters for other stalls. These donated items could be exchanged for a token to be used at the market.

On 11th July some of the Eco Art sculptures were on display at St Mary’s Eco Garden Open Day in Wallasey. Other attractions included a minibeast hunt, seed giveaways, recycling game, composting demos and planting vegetables in the Eco Garden.

The Eco Art is available to be booked for events by schools and community groups. Please use the booking form on the Eco Art page of our website:
https://wirralenvironmentalnetwork.org.uk/what-we-do/eco-art-in-the-park

Tuesdays at WEN are busy with arts and crafts, upholstery and woodwork activities, as the Reclaimers and Crafters groups repurpose, refashion and repair items for reuse.

WEN Reclaimers meet weekly on Tuesday mornings and reuse donated wood to create items such as planters, bird boxes, bird tables and signs. They also repair outdoor items and help with ground and building maintenance. The WEN Crafters meet alternate Tuesdays (restarting 12th September) and reuse donated materials to create items such as cushion covers, bags, home decorations and knitted crafts.

If you would like to find out more about the groups or join in, please email wen@la21.net

This month, we gave our website a bit of a revamp to give more information about all of our projects, activities and educational and voluntary opportunities.

Check out the new What We Do section here:

https://wirralenvironmentalnetwork.org.uk/what-we-do

We’ve booked a guided tour of the Gillmoss Recycling Discovery Centre on Tuesday 19th September at 10am and you are invited to join us!

During the visit you will learn:

• What you can recycle at home.
• What is contamination – the wrong things put in the recycling bins.
• The journey of recycling from your home to its final destination.
• A tour of the Materials Recovery Facility where you’ll see recycling in action.

Participants will need to make their own way there, although we will facilitate lift shares.

Address: Gillmoss Recycling Discovery Centre, Bridgehouse Lane, Fazakerley, Liverpool, L10 5HA

View map of location:
https://goo.gl/maps/3KWedkpcRQ4JhVom8

To register your interest, email wen@la21.net or call 0151 639 2121 with your name, if you can offer a lift or if you need one.