AN environmental charity has opened a shop in a Worcester shopping centre, providing a new lease of life to fabrics that would otherwise have ended up dumped in landfill.

Worcester Remade is based at the Crowngate Shopping Centre in Friary Walk.

Lynn Denham, joint leader of Worcester City Council, has already visited the shop and expressed her support for the initiative.

Remade Worcester has taken up the baton from Worcestershire Resource Exchange which existed for 18 years before it closed in the summer of 2022.

Feeling the loss of a scrapstore for Worcestershire, a small group of 'scrap fanatics' has worked hard to re-establish a community organisation that can build towards a fully functioning scrapstore for the area once again.

A Community Interest Company has been set up, and it is also a registered charity.

Remade volunteer Sue Fry said: “Our mission is to make reuse the preferred option instead of new purchases. We want to promote the concept of reuse, repair and the circular economy.

“At the moment we are only open on Thursday and Friday mornings.

“We are entirely volunteer-run, and we all have other responsibilities, so we really need more volunteers to allow us to extend our opening hours.”

The charity now has a shop in Friary Walk just up the stairs from the Broad Street entrance to the Crowngate Centre.

The shop sells high-quality furnishing fabric, as well as craft materials, which would all have ended up in landfill if it had not been taken by Remade.

Ms Fry said: “Everything is donated and we hope to expand our stock to include other craft materials, wood, paint, artists’ materials, interesting bits of plastic - in fact, anything that can be reused safety.

"And we would like to hold workshops to widen the skills needed to reuse reclaimed resources, promote sustainable design and ways of living for environmental and economic benefit.”

The shop was visited by Cathedral ward city councillor and joint leader of the council Lynn Denham this week.

She said "I am so pleased that these enthusiastic volunteers have rescued the remnants (literally!) of Worcestershire Resource Exchange after its closure by the Duckworth Trust.

"Thank you to Crowngate for giving them a new home in the city centre. Remade have big ambitions to expand their shop hours and workshops and are looking for more supporters. Anyone interested should pop in and say hello and see what is going on!'"