More than 200 people have brought 150 broken things to the Avenue Pavilion. The next session is Saturday, and the council fund behind it reopens on 4 September.
Petersfield’s monthly repair café has taken in more than 150 broken items since it opened, East Hampshire District Council says. More than 200 people have been through the door.
The next session is this Saturday, 29 August, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm at the Avenue Pavilion. There is no charge. Petersfield Climate Action Network, which runs it, asks for a donation.
The council says a £10,000 grant from its Community Climate Action Fund helped PeCAN set the café up. That fund reopens for applications at 9am on Friday 4 September, which matters to any local group with a project of its own.
What you can take on Saturday
PeCAN lists what its volunteers can work on:
- scissors, knives, secateurs and shears, for sharpening and adjusting
- electrical items needing a new plug, soldering, diagnosis or PAT testing
- small IT repairs
- bikes needing simple work such as brake or gear adjustment
- clothes and toys needing patching, sewing or darning
- costume and beaded jewellery needing restringing or a new clasp
- wooden or plastic items that need gluing back together
Petersfield Women’s Institute sells tea, coffee and cake at the same session. PeCAN says the Hampshire Repair Café Network’s 28 cafés have measured more than 40 tonnes of waste and 300 tonnes of carbon emissions prevented, and that there are more than 2,500 repair cafés worldwide.
The £10,000 also paid for a public screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing film in May. The council says it filled “a packed Studio at TPS”, and that the debate afterwards included Damian Hinds, the Conservative MP for East Hampshire.
Patricia Exley, PeCAN’s team leader, said the money “is helping us to reach more residents this year” and that the charity had “engaged hundreds of families through talks, walks, and activities such as maintaining riverbanks”.
Where the climate fund’s money has gone
The Community Climate Action Fund is the council’s own grant scheme for not-for-profit groups. The council says it has allocated over £350,000 to 40 projects since 2023.
Adding up the four published results lists gives £376,826.80 across 43 grants to 38 organisations. Round four, in October 2025, was the biggest at £128,624.
| Round | Grants | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1, March 2023 | 13 | £126,857.39 |
| 2, October 2023 | 8 | £52,006.41 |
| 3, August 2024 | 8 | £69,339.00 |
| 4, October 2025 | 14 | £128,624.00 |
PeCAN has had the most of any organisation: £35,000 across three rounds, £12,500 in 2023, £12,500 in 2024 and £10,000 in 2025. Treloar’s in Alton is second on £28,211 from two grants, both for solar panels.
The single largest grant was £19,450 to Whitehill Town Council for solar panels and battery storage at the Mill Chase pavilion and garage. Treloar’s £18,211 and Alton Community Centre’s £18,000, both in the first round, are next. Liss Parish Council’s £17,620 for solar panels at Liss Pavilion is fourth.
Most of the money has gone on hardware rather than events. Adding up the four lists, solar panels, battery storage, lighting and window replacement come to about £220,000 of the £376,827, close to three pounds in every five.
Petersfield projects funded so far include solar panels at Petersfield Community Centre, floodlights at Petersfield Town Football Club, solar panels at Petersfield Rugby Club and at Petersfield Bowling and Snooker Club, and £1,166 to Petersfield Town Council for rainwater harvesting.
What it means for you
If you have something broken, Saturday afternoon at the Avenue Pavilion costs you nothing but a donation. The volunteers work on the item in front of you, so bring it with you rather than describing it.
If you run a club, a village hall, a school or a parish council in East Hampshire, the fund is the more useful piece of news. Round five opens at 9am on Friday 4 September and closes on Monday 5 October. The council says decisions should be made by the end of November. Its news page gives the closing time as 11.59am rather than the usual 11.59pm, which is worth checking before you leave an application to the last morning.
The council sets out what it looks for:
- evidence that the project will cut carbon emissions or improve resilience
- a letter of support from a district councillor
- the number of residents it will benefit, the wider the better
- landowner or leaseholder permission, and planning permission already in place where it is needed
The permissions point is the one to plan around. The council names solar panels, external battery installations and replacement windows as work that can need planning permission, and says it expects that permission to be in place before a grant application is made, not after. Our Petersfield planning news page tracks what the South Downs National Park Authority is deciding in the town.
Have your say