A SOCIAL enterprise which aims to confront the throwaway nature of modern life will soon be sitting comfortably after receiving a grant.

The Malvern Hills Repair Café has been handed £500 by Malvern Town Council which it will put towards improving its furniture repairs service.

The funds will be used to purchase all sorts of clamps, saws, files, drills and glues which are needed to fix and patch-up pieces of furniture, such as chairs and stools.

Chris Dyer, who runs the café with his wife Jan, said: “We get quite a lot of demand for furniture repairs. “Historically, one of our repairers brings in all kinds of clamps but what we really wanted to do was to get a central, in-house stock.

“Not only can we now do furniture repairs but we can also undertake part of our remit to pass on repair skills to the unemployed youth.”

The couple set up the town’s first repair café last year in a bid to move away from what they consider an increasingly “throwaway society” where it is easier to bin something than patch it up.

They took their inspiration from Holland, where the Repair Café Foundation was started in 2009, and hundreds of similar groups run events throughout the year.

And Mr Dyer said schemes such as the Malvern club need backing from councils and other groups to prosper.

“We would like to state we are grateful to Malvern Town Council,” he added. “This is the first piece of local authority recognition we have seen.”

The next repair café will be held at Malvern Cube, Albert Road North, from 10am to 2pm on Saturday, October 19.

For more information, call 01684 438539 or e-mail themalvernhillsrepaircafe@gmail.com.