![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/06\/Parliamentary-Repair-Cafe-Repair-Kat-Corbett.png\")
For the past two years, Kat has organised monthly repair caf\u00e9s within the School of Engineering, where students, staff, and members of the public are invited to bring in broken items and learn how to fix them. These sessions have become an important part of the School\u2019s commitment to sustainability and skills development, aligning with broader university efforts to promote circular economy thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event attracted 32 MPs, with a further four represented by staff members, many of whom had been encouraged to attend by constituents. As well as getting involved in practical repair, attendees learned about policy changes needed to make repair more accessible and affordable across the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A highlight of the day was a speech from Mary Creagh CBE MP<\/strong>, Minister for Nature and chair of the government\u2019s Circular Economy Taskforce. She arrived dressed in repaired clothing and spoke passionately about her commitment to developing a roadmap for circular electricals by next spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also speaking at the event was broadcaster Jeremy Vine<\/strong>, who shared his personal frustrations with trying to repair a Segway that was barely three years old. His story resonated with the repair community present, many of whom felt confident it could be fixed. One attendee from a refurbishment company even offered to take on the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kat was particularly inspired by conversations with other repair pioneers, including representatives from Manchester\u2019s Renew Hub<\/a><\/strong>, an ambitious reuse initiative supported by SUEZ<\/a><\/strong>. She even left with one of their upcycled bags made from scrap upholstery fabric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflecting on the experience, Kat said: The Restart Project used the event to promote its Repair & Reuse Declaration<\/a><\/strong>, which outlines specific policy recommendations, including expanding the UK\u2019s Right to Repair, introducing a repair index, and supporting the next generation of repairers. To date, the declaration has been signed by over 400 organisations and 64 MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UWE Bristol\u2019s MAKERS project, which was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Impact Programme<\/a>, continues to embed practical sustainability into engineering education and community outreach. Building on the success of the project, the team behind it is currently working on the Creating MAKERS Spaces initiative, as part of which they will develop a guide and toolkit to help other higher and further education institutions implement similar programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, Kat Corbett, Coordinator of the School of Engineering’s MAKERS Project and Repair Cafe, was among a select group of community repair leaders invited to take part in a unique event inside the Houses of Parliament. Kat was one of 20 representatives from repair caf\u00e9s across the UK who supported a Parliamentary Repair Caf\u00e9 … Continue reading “UWE Bristol’s MAKERS Project at the Parliamentary Repair Caf\u00e9”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":15541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":223,"footnotes":""},"categories":[227,191,151,150,119,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bristol-repair-coalition","category-climate-action-hub","category-diversity-and-inclusion","category-engineering-and-society","category-engineering-in-the-community","category-makers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15536"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15550,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15536\/revisions\/15550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/06\/Parliamentary-Repair-Cafe-Jeremy-Vine-Segway.png\")
\u201cIt was an honour to represent UWE Bristol and the MAKERS project at such a prestigious and meaningful event. The energy in the room was incredible, and it\u2019s encouraging to see the appetite for change at a political level. I\u2019m hopeful that this marks another step towards a more sustainable, repair-friendly future.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/06\/Parliamentary-Repair-Cafe-Repair-in-Progress.png\")