Bracknell Repair Café

28/07/2026

Latest News

The Trustees and Volunteers have been busy working to create the Bracknell Repair Cafe. The Trustees gave a great presentation at the recent Bracknell Forest Community Climate Summit on 8th July 2026.

We had another excellent workshop on Saturday, 18th June, with 20 volunteers attending St Andrew's Church, where the trustees shared the progress and we developed our fix lists and made our initial selection of materials and tools to be purchased.

We are still awaiting approval from the Charity Commission for CIO status but hope we are now reaching the end of the queue and we expect to hear soon.

We have now submitted our funding applications and remain confident that we will have the funds necessary to start the Cafe.

We are now planning two further workshops. The next workshop will be on Saturday, 12th September, where we will role-play the repair cafe process, followed by our friends-and-family-only pilot event on Saturday, 3rd October, to further develop our workflows. We are planning our first public event on Saturday, 7th November.

There is still plenty of opportunity to get involved, so please hold the date for our next workshops and watch out for our updates via email, Facebook, or on our webpage nearer the time.

Bracknell Repair Cafe Team

25/07/2026

Are you interested in helping with Hedgehog research in the local area?

Then Reading University's Isabella Clark is currently recruiting volunteer citizen scientists for a research project to study how hedgehogs come into contact with poisons....

Further details are below

I am a researcher based at the University of Reading, currently recruiting volunteers to take part in a citizen science project investigating how urban hedgehogs may come into contact with rodenticides (rodent poison) in gardens through different routes, such as entering rodent bait boxes or scavenging poisoned rodent carcasses.

We are looking for volunteers in or near Reading and Bracknell with access to a garden to take part. Volunteers can choose to participate in up to three projects, which involve monitoring (1) slug and (2) hedgehog visits to rodent bait boxes, and (3) the scavenging behaviour of garden mammals. No prior experience is required, and all equipment will be delivered to participants' homes. Gardens do not need to have hedgehogs as all gardens provide valuable information.

The findings from this project may help improve understanding of the risks rodenticides pose to urban hedgehogs and inform more wildlife-friendly pest control practices.

I would be very grateful if your group would consider sharing this opportunity with your members. The projects are planned to begin in summer 2026, with surveys repeated during winter 2026/2027.
More information can be found on our website:

https://sites.google.com/view/gardenwildlife-org

24/07/2026

We held our 2nd workshop at St Andrew's Church on 18th July, where we went through our fix and no-fix lists and our material lists of equipment required. It was great to see such a large turnout.

Our next workshop will be on the 12th September, where we are planning to role-play the Repair Cafe Workflow. I will update further in our next Newsletter !

08/06/2026

Latest News

We had an excellent workshop on Saturday, 6th June, with 20 volunteers attending St Andrew's Church, where the trustees shared the progress made so far and answered many questions. We also used the time to begin creating our repair cafe teams, identifying our skills, and planning our next steps. We, the trustees, are very thankful to everyone who came along and for the impressive range of skills, knowledge, and talent they brought to the workshop. This is a great step in bringing our repair cafe to life.

In other news, we are still awaiting our approval from the Charity Commission. We were told it could take about 23 weeks to obtain our charitable status, and we are about halfway through that process at the moment. We are also continuing to work on our funding and remain confident that we will have the funds necessary to start the cafe.

We are now planning two further workshops on the 18th July and 12th September, prior to holding a Pilot event for friends and family, hopefully on the 3rd October. There is still plenty of opportunity to get involved, so please hold the date for our next workshops and watch out for our updates via email, Facebook, or on our webpage nearer the time.

If you want to learn about our local repair cafes, please also come along to the Bracknell Forest Community Climate Summit on the 8th July 2026 at the Kerith Community Church. Crowthorne Repair Cafe will give a talk during the afternoon session, and Bracknell Repair Cafe will take the evening slot. If you are interested in attending this event, then please book your free ticket on Eventbrite using the link below.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bracknell-forest-community-climate-summit-2026-tickets-1986195035819?keep_tld=true

Bracknell Repair Cafe

8th July - Kerith Community Centre, Bracknell

06/06/2026

We had a great volunteer workshop at St Andrews Church today. Lots of excitment about bring the Bracknell Repair Cafe to life...Many thanks to everyone !

06/05/2026

Latest News

Work on bringing the Bracknell Repair Café continues, and we are now pleased to welcome a member of Warfield Parish onto the Café Management Team.

We again had a good response from the Warfield Reduce, Reuse and Recycle event and were pleased to meet the team from Wokingham’s Repair Café. We have now received expressions of interest from almost 40 local volunteers and are now planning our first volunteer workshop on the 6th June, between 10:30 and 12:30 hrs at St Andrews Church, to introduce the Repair Café Concept and decide on our next steps. Y

If you are on our email list then you should have received an invite to this workshop. If you have not, please let us know and we will forward you details.

While our charity application is still with the Charity Commission, we are continuing to get ready for our start-up. This includes working on our policies and procedures necessary to keep everyone safe, and for which we will be seeking your input at the workshop on the 6th June. We have also put together a start-up budget and equipment list, which we will share at the workshop, and we are actively seeking community funding and in-kind support for the project. We have had positive discussions with two local organisations, and we are confident that we will have the funds necessary to launch the case

If you or your organisation would also like to contribute to the start-up of the Repair Cafe, please also get in touch, and we can share our start-up equipment listing. We will need a wide range of equipment to ensure the cafe can operate safely and successfully.

We still need more volunteers and trustees, so if you are interested in helping get the cafe off the ground or know anyone else who would also be interested, please get in touch and come along to our workshop to find out more.

24/04/2026

BFCCA will be at the Warfield Reduce, Reuse and Recycle event on Sunday, recruiting for the Bracknell Repair Cafe... please come along and say hello !

Warfield Parish Council Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Event.
A free Community event and activities to find out more about opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle and promoting cycling.
26th April Drop in from 1-4pm – FREE ENTRY
Whitegrove Community Centre, Near Tesco, County Lane, RG42 3JP
Activities include:
• Seed Planting, take home and grow
• Wildflowers seeds – plant at home
• Poster Competition for local schools with prizes
• Recycling activity
• Make popcorn from solar energy
Exhibitors include:
• Bike Doctor – free bike checks advice on keeping your bike roadworthy. The Bike Doctor will be able to make adjustments to your bike at the event
• Involve Community Services - Information on Switch Together. Install solar panels and battery storage through a group buying scheme.
• https://switchtogether.co.uk/solar-and-battery/bracknell-forest
• Bracknell Forest Community Climate Action - how you can make a difference in everyday actions.
• https://bfcca.org/
• Bracknell Forest Council Transport team - information on cycling routes and sustainable transport.
• Thames Valley Police - Bike Marking and register your bike. please note this takes place between 2-4pm
• Warfield Environmental Group – find out how you can be involved in local environmental and nature projects
• Information on local Repair Café’s and a new Café starting in Bracknell
• Local Beekeeper - how you can support pollinators in your garden.
• KIA Electric Vehicles - find out how Electric Vehicles work and the benefits of Electric Cars
• Clean Air Living Matters (CALM Clean Air initiative) and Air Monitors
• Refreshments on sale
• Ice cream Van
• Homemade Cakes and refreshments available

See our website for further details.
https://www.warfieldparishcouncil.gov.uk/council_events/

01/04/2026

On the 26th April, Bracknell Repair Cafe will be attending the Warfield Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Event at Whitegrove Community Centre, near Tesco, County Lane, RG42 3JP, from 1 PM to 4 PM.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Repair Cafe and how you can get involved, please come along.