Co-founder of Lover Repair Cafe recognised in New Year Honours list
81 year old Paul Bromage awarded British Empire Medal
Services to the community particularly during Covid-19 have earned recognition for one resident from the Wiltshire village of Lover.
Paul Bromage co-founded the Lover Repair Café with the aim of mending and revamping everything from electrical items to furniture and toys.
Since the facility opened in May 2019 with its slogan of 'Do Not Bin It We May Fix It' hundreds of items have been repaired, many of which would have ended up in landfill.
The coronavirus pandemic meant the usual location of Redlynch Village Hall couldn't be used but Paul willingly offered his double garage as a workshop to keep the service going.
A drop up and pick up service has been operating there twice a week with many residents making use of it.
The service is free but many residents who have had items repaired have left donations enabling Paul and his fellow co-founder Maurice Caustick to raise funds for Salisbury District Hospital's charity, the Stars Appeal.
An additional £1000 was raised for the village pre-school.
The repair team have also assisted the Parish Council in sprucing up road signs.
COMMUNITY HERO
Paul has lived in Lover for more than 30 years and he immediately became involved in church youth groups, being a willing volunteer and brilliant leader for the Boys Brigade and Sunday School groups as well as a Governor at Trafalgar School in Downton
He became Chairman of the Village Hall Committee and thanks to his practical carpentry skills, he has given thousands of hours supporting many church projects from mundane repairs to building kitchens.
He also set up ‘The Lover Café’ to offer a social outlet for the elderly within the community to combat loneliness along with ‘Silver Surfer’ IT sessions advising and assisting others on access to the Internet to encourage their outreach.
OTHER WILTSHIRE WINNERS
There were also a few other people from South Wiltshire who were recognised in the New Years Honours list.
Some of them included are:
- Peter Deck - For services to the community in Pewsey, Wiltshire - BEM
- Thomas Kimnell - Lately Police Constable, Surrey Police, for services to Policing and Youth Engagement in Surrey Heath - BEM - From Salisbury
- Amanda Mathews - Senior Adviser, Natural England. For Public Service during Covid-19 - BEM - From Tisbury
- Professor Veronica Bowman - Statistics and Data Science Fellow, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. For services to Defence and the Covid-19 Response - OBE - From Salisbury
- Joy Tubbs - Director - Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education. For services to Education - MBE
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