A Douglas councillor says the main consideration for its new ‘Repair Shop’ scheme is to make sure it’s doing the right thing for the environment.

The local authority has started a three-month trial at the Eastern Civic Amenity site, which will see items with some re-use value collected by Northern Men in Sheds to fix – including furniture, garden tools and fitness equipment.

It will be reviewed at the end of the three months in February next year, to determine whether the scheme should be continued, expanded or ended.

Douglas Council’s representative on the Eastern Civic Amenity Site committee, Falk Horning, said he hopes it will be ‘successful’ - but it isn’t guaranteed.

‘We want to get items reused,’ he said. ‘New items have to be created from new materials, and that has an environmental impact.

‘When things can get repaired and reused that doesn't have to happen, and other people are going to benefit from that because they get the items at a cheaper price.’

Explaining how the system would work, Mr Horning said that staff at the site will ‘have a conversation’ with those disposing items about whether they can be used in the repair shop.

‘If the staff notices some items are maybe usable for repairs, they are going to ask people whether they would be happy for that to happen,’ he added.

‘The staff are then going to put those items aside in the shed near the reuse area in a special segment, and then communicate with Northern Men in Sheds whether they actually want to take those items.

‘It might be that some of those items will be be used, but then the charity might say it's too difficult to repair some that can't be done and they will be put back in the normal area.’