Ben joined more than 100 repair groups from across the UK last week for the 3rd Parliamentary Repair Café, organised by the Restart Project and BackMarket.
The day aimed to raise awareness of the Repair and Reuse Declaration, policy objectives to help us all keep our stuff working and in use longer. We were thrilled to see more than 91 MPs and 11 staffers on the day, with more than 140 MPs now signed up to the declaration.
Growing Political Support
It was a great opportunity to catch up with the teams from Bicester Green and Hook Norton repair cafés and put faces to names from many further afield! Ben was also pleased to check in with local MP Anneliese Dodds, who offered some great tips and new connections. And it’s good to see MP Layla Moran on the list of signatories as well.
What comes next?
The Restart Project have put together a blog with more detail on the day and ongoing work happening at national level, linking up community action with the government’s imminent refresh of the Circular Economy Strategy. They pose some great challenges and suggestions for this work, including:
- reducing cost of repair
- catching up with repair legislation in Europe
- stopping working equipment being destroyed and recycled
- boosting repair skills
We’ve felt the growing energy for repair in our community here in Oxford, with more and more repair cafés and projects opening locally. It’s great to see so much happening nationally too. Let’s keep moving!
