Page 39 - ALG Issue 2 2025

WEST MIDLANDS Welcome to…
14 individuals
Etching Hill Allotment Group
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough
Council
VALUABLE
FACILITY
At last, we have toilet facilities on site!
Monksfield Allotment Association (MAA)
were delighted to receive a grant of
over £7000 from Severn Trent Water
Community Fund for a Woowoo GT
accessible composting toilet this year.
MAA was established fourteen years
ago when Malvern Town Council bought a
field in a rural setting three miles outside
Malvern to relocate allotments from the
town due to cemetery expansion. Our
peaceful open site in Worcestershire
countryside is great except for the lack of
facilities – the nearest public toilet is almost
three miles away. This has always been a
constraint upon social and community
activities and time spent at the allotments.
We are a self-managed association of
about 85 members, all of whom live in
the Malvern Town area and the land is
leased from the Council. We successfully
applied for funding from the Severn
Trent Community Fund in spring 2024,
and completed the assembly of the cabin
and composting unit in August. MAA
contributed about 10% of the total cost,
plus a lot of legwork. The final cost was
£180 over budget, due to additional hard
standing because of the final location in
part of a vacated plot. Despite employing a
specialist installer, putting up the cabin was
hard work but well worth it since the toilet
has been in use ever since and much valued
by members, especially families and older
members.
In October we held “toilet completion”
picnics after the regular site maintenance
working parties to celebrate the
completion of the toilet. These were
attended by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor
of Malvern Town Council.
Adjacent to the toilet area are a wildlife
area with pond, meeting and picnic areas
and “club house” (repurposed static
caravan). The construction of the toilet has
enabled us to take forward our plan to
turn the rest of the plot into a “wellbeing
garden” for retired members, wheelchairs
users and others unable to manage a
full plot. We have received a grant from
Malvern Town Council to take this forward
in the next year, including working with local
community organisations and plan during
the next year to level the surface and put
in raised beds at different heights, seating
and work benches. We would value learning
from the experience of other allotment
associations doing something similar.
Jade Gough, Severn Trent Community
Fund Officer, said: “The allotment is such
a lovely site that has a real community of
like-minded members. We were so pleased
to be able to provide the funding for the
toilet, which means that the association
not only has its own facilities, but also
means that they can look at hosting more
community activities. We look forward to
seeing the site grow and develop with all
the new plans coming together.”
Please contact us on monksfieldnotices@
gmail.com for general queries and
maawaitinglist@outlook.com if you live in
Malvern and would like to join our waiting
list for plots.
Monksfield Allotment Association
Allotment and Leisure Gardener | Issue 2 2025 | 39