Local resident Jonathan Heath has come up with an idea for a new website to help residents of Ravenshead and other local communities.

The idea for www.hirematemarket.co.uk came about from seeing unused belongings, including ladders and power tools, being stored around the house and garages of friends and family — items that may get used a few times a year but otherwise sit in a cupboard or garage collecting dust.

Jonathan thought that if people could hire out the items they could earn some extra income and also save the borrower the cost of buying the equipment themselves, or hiring it from a commercial hire business.

Quite often a specific piece of equipment can make jobs around the home much easier, but it’s not worth buying it just for that one job. Yet someone else in the area could have that equipment sitting in the garage not being used.

Jonathan said it would also be good for the environment as people only need to travel a short distance to pick up the item and the new concept would also save on the manufacture of products that don’t get much use.

“I originally thought of the idea as applying to tools and equipment, but people can use this to lease virtually anything,” he added.

“I’ve listed a wide range of categories on the website, from tools to holiday homes.

“People could also hire out themselves as tutors or for gardening work for example, or even lease their surplus storage space. And because it’s a local market you get to meet more people from the local community.”

A website has just been set up at www.hirematemarket.co.uk where items can be listed for hire and booked using a debit or credit card.

Jonathan said: “The website has only just gone live so I need people to have a look and start posting items for hire so people can start hiring them.

“It’s an experiment at this stage to see if this idea provides something useful to the area.

“During the trial we really want as much feedback from residents on how they find it to use and what improvements we can make.

“I’ve already thought of improvements I want to make but some real feedback from users would be valuable.

“It’s been a good experience for me just getting to this stage and learning how a business can be set up, but it would be brilliant to see this being used regularly and helping people to both earn and save money.

“People I speak to think this is a good idea but I think the biggest challenge will be to bring about a change in the mindset of residents that they can access a massive range of equipment from neighbours within easy reach and cost effectively.

“It seems wasteful that one household has to go out and buy something they probably won’t go on to use very much, while that very item sits collecting dust just down the road.

“Why not hire the item from a neighbour?”

Jonathan said in principle the idea could apply to almost anything, from tools to teaching services or cycles to hifi equipment.

“It would be fascinating to see the range of items that people put up for hire,” he added.

“The website has only just gone live in the Ravenshead area and so residents have only just started posting belongings and services for hire.

“There are already some really interesting items going on but it would be great to see it build and residents of the wider Mansfield community getting some use out of it — and regarding it as a first port of call when they need something.”