WEYMOUTH'S popular Repair Café events may be on hold - but that hasn't stopped the team rallying in support of the community during the pandemic.

The monthly sessions, held at the Palm House Café, saw residents queueing up to have broken household items repaired and saved from landfill - until the pandemic brought the events to a halt.

Despite this, organisers are celebrating the fact they were still able to hold six of the 10 events planned for the financial year, and at a recent virtual AGM took a vote on the best way to put funds raised to good use in the community.

The not-for-profit Repair Café did not charge attendees, but instead asked people to donate what they were able to. At their AGM, the committee and repair volunteers voted overwhelmingly in favour of donating this year's proceeds of £225 to the Veteran's Hub charity on Portland Road, which provides support to local servicemen and women, veterans, and their families.

Ros Dean, chairman and founder of the Repair Café, said “The atmosphere was electric at Repair Café Weymouth events - then coronavirus struck with a vengeance in March. The two hour, monthly repair sessions brought over 100 people into the Palm House Café, with mutual admiration of the volunteers’ skills and the broken items and their history."

Secretary Judy Luffman added: “As a not-for-profit organisation with a surplus of funds, we wanted to give some money away to local good causes."

Just before the second lockdown struck, Veterans Hub founder Andy Price showed Ros and Judy around the café area, Remembrance garden with raised beds, the gym and the therapy room in the summerhouse. He was said to be both surprised and grateful that another local organisation could be in a position to support the Veteran Hub's activities.

Ros said: "We hope our visitors are happy with this use of their donations. We are determined to play our part in combatting coronavirus and keeping both our volunteers and the public safe by curtailing our activities until it is safe out there. We hope it is not too long before we can hit the ground running again.”

Find the Repair Café on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RepairCafeWeymouth or at www.repaircafeweymouth.org