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The Mayor of Haywards Heath visited a brilliant charity initiative, Share Haywards Heath, to help celebrate the 100th loan at the Lindfield Scout Hut. The charity was set up in 2023 by a mother and son residents, Pauline Mallinson and Richard Bronze, to allow members of the local community to borrow a variety of items, saving money while also helping the planet.Share Haywards Heath provide a variety of items, ranging from garden equipment to kitchenware, DIY tools and a whole lot more. The project is run entirely by volunteers, including Alex and Max who were helping out during the Mayor’s visit.

Town Mayor, Cllr Stephanie Ingelsfield, said:

“I spent Saturday morning at Share Haywards Heath and I saw them in action, with people coming to borrow and return items. What a wonderful initiative and a very useful service, provided in a lovely and friendly atmosphere.

Not only does this enable people to borrow items that they don’t use often, they can spare themselves the expense of purchasing these things, but this also is good for the environment as it is much better for us to share these items instead of multiplying them.

Haywards Heath Mayor with volunteers & borrowers of Share Haywards Heath

I spoke to the lovely volunteers and borrowers and apparently people have also taken to borrowing the Air Fryer to “test drive” it so to speak to see if it is worth their while using one. This such a simple and clever system, good for the environment, and good for the community. Thank you to the mother and son duo for this great local resource and to the amazing volunteers who keep the project running”.

The 100th loan was for a pressure washer, which local resident Alexandra and her son were borrowing to clean their car. It was a busy morning with others borrowing a strimmer, a hedge trimmer, a carpet shampooer and a drill and spirit level to hang a curtain rail. Others were returning items including a bike rack for a car.

Project co-founder, Richard Bronze, added:

“Its great to reach this milestone 100th loan, as it shows people have been discovering the library and finding it useful. We’ve been getting steadily busier over the last few months and we now want to keep spreading the word so we can help more people and increase our impact. We are also looking for more volunteers to help out as we grow!

Making good use of the Share Haywards Heath borrowing library

The project s a registered charity and relies on donations and volunteers to cover its costs, expand its collection of items and keep loan fees as low as possible. It is free to sign up and each loan costs between £1 to £5 per week depending on the item.

Thank you so much to the Mayor for taking time out of her busy schedule to help celebrate our 100th milestone!”

Share Haywards Heath

Share Haywards Heath is a borrowing library which operates out of Lindfield Scout Hut on Eastern Road (RH16 2LP). It is open on Tuesday and Saturday mornings.

For more information on Share Haywards Heath, visit https://sharehh..org.uk

Mayor visits local charity: Share Haywards Heath hits its 100th milestone loan