Can we fix it? They will definitely do their best as a handy initiative has been launched in a village near Petersfield.

The Buriton Repair Café looks set to become a firm fixture given the response from the community at this morning’s launch in the village hall.

The scheme has been weeks in the pipeline with a trial run taking place last month ahead of today’s launch.

Nine repairers offered their skills at the inaugural session with specialists in electrics, tool sharpening, sewing, IT and woodwork among the experts.

Repair Café Buriton has been initially set-up by Dave Grant, Sue Grant, Ken Cox and Liz Cox and adds to other village initiatives to tackle sustainability, climate and nature recovery challenges.

The volunteer team want to fix things, but also pass on their skills as they seek get residents to repair, reuse and recycle instead of throwing away.

Liz said: “I think people in the village have been wanting this for a long time.

“We want to encourage people to come to this café and get their things repaired, but we want to teach them things as well because many things you can do at home.

“We’re running this on the back of a successful monthly community coffee morning here in the village hall, and they’ve very kindly accepted us into this space.”

Liz added there has been “so much” community support while the café was given a further boost from Cllr Rob Mocatta as he donated a £900 grant from his EHDC Community Fund to help the project get off the ground.

The tool sharpening corner quickly proved popular while Paul Robinson was also soon at work, fixing gardening equipment belonging to a grateful Teddy Underwood.

‘Chief repairer’ Dave Grant is all for it, as the electrical engineer with a sideline in woodwork doesn’t like to see things go to waste.

He said: “Skills have definitely been lost since the boomers.

“In post war period you didn’t throw anything away and you fixed it. So many things that could be repaired are just discarded now.”

The repair café will be open at the village hall on the first Saturday of the month from 10.30am to 12.30pm, with the next session taking place on November 1.

The emphasis was also on “re-use” in another corner of the hall as members of Buriton’s “village to village” link with the Ghanian community of Dominase also highlighted their latest project.

Following on from their hugely successful ‘buy a bog’ project, they now want to provide teenage girls in the rural village with reusable sanitary pads.

“Shops in Ghana will have pads and tampons but they don’t reach all the villages and they’re expensive and they end up being thrown away,” said Doug Jones.

“We’ve come up with a way they can make them for themselves and we’ve now got some local ladies making pennies by making reusable ones.

“We’re just raising awareness, really, and encouraging people to make a little monthly donation.”