Lend and Mend Hub launched at Greenock's South West library

The Lend and Mend Hub has opened in Greenock’s South West Library as part of a pioneering new initiative by Inverclyde Council’s libraries service in partnership with the Scottish Libraries Information Council (SLIC) and funded through the £1 million John Lewis Circular Fund.

It is one of nine facilities being set up across Scotland but is the first to be launched.

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The Lend and Mend Hub will allow people to access the resources they need to repair, reuse, rent and upcycle everyday items free of charge to help with the cost-of-living crisis and tackle the climate emergency by cutting down on waste.

The launch at South West Library saw some young crafters from nearby Lady Alice Primary demonstrate their skills, with demonstrations of hand-stitching on the back of a denim jacket and opportunities for guests to have a go, and simple sewing machine workshops. 

Councillor Jim Clocherty, Inverclyde Council’s convener of education and communities, said: “Our libraries service works closely with SLIC and other partners to push the boundaries of what libraries can offer and this is another fantastic addition.

“Traditionally, repairing clothes and other household goods was commonplace for most local households and many residents will still remember their parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles digging out the sewing kit to fix a pair of trousers or learning how to change a fuse.

“Sadly, many of those practices went out of fashion over the years as buying new became more affordable and a lot more convenient for the mass market.

“But with people now feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis and as a society being more informed about the environmental emergency affecting our planet, we are seeing a huge rise in people looking to repair, reuse and upcycle and it’s great to see that being encouraged through initiatives like Lend and Mend Hubs and I’m proud that Inverclyde leading the way in opening Scotland’s first one.”

Funding granted from The John Lewis Partnership has been used for the equipment, training and space upgrades needed to deliver the promising projects.

Each library hub will also introduce an education programme to support new skills development.

The first focus will be on ‘mending’, with a series of sewing workshops and repair cafes already underway at some locations.

Funding has been used to redecorate a space within South West Library where people can learn how to upcycle and gain new skills for free.

The hub itself features recycled and upcycled furniture.

Starting out with textiles, there will soon be beginners’ classes teaching things like basic sewing skills to help people repair and amend items before expanding into different areas.

Alison Nolan, team leader at Inverclyde Libraries, is delighted to see the project get underway.

She added: “It’s all about revamping and reusing underused spaces within public libraries.

“At South West we have this wonderful room, plenty of light and fantastic gardens so we decided this would be perfect for that.

“The second stage of the project is that we’re going to have a lending collection as well.
“This’ll be seldom used items such as electric drills, glue guns, gardening equipment and things like that.

“This all ties in with the public library strategy, because part of that is developing the collections that we have to be non-traditional.

“We will be offering beginners classes to all of Inverclyde so that they can learn how to upskill and upcycle and hopefully we’ll get a bit of volunteering and traditional skills being shared.”