The Bog Blog - 1st Edition
Last year at the district A.G.M we launched our plans to upgrade the toilet and shower facilities at Hopehill.
This involved bringing together a team to move this forward and so the “toilet block committee” was born better known as the “bog committee or Poo Patrol”. Since then, in our quest to find the perfect bog we have all started taking a possibly unhealthy interest in the offerings of other sites and even public loos often going so far as to photograph them. We have also carried out a site visit to Buckmore park to look at their newish shipping containers turned into toilets and showers. After discussing this option, we quickly decided it did not sit well with the style of Hopehill and we felt that steel containers would not provide a long enough service life as well as requiring too much ongoing maintenance. From the outset we took the decision to either re use the existing building or build something in keeping with the other buildings on site.
Our first action was to get the old adult block demolished and the site cleared so we can see what we have to work with, this was completed in the autumn of last year. Once we had the space cleared, we started talking to Architects and building service engineers to plan our way forwards. Very early on in these discussions it was confirmed that the power supply to the site was not sufficient, and we needed to do something to increase its capacity. After many conversations with our electrical supplier Henson managed to get them to run a second supply from the transformer in the car park, we then needed to trench across the field to get this power across to the toilet block area. This was completed earlier this year. It was also felt that we needed to survey the drains to ensure they can handle the extra load the new block would add to them. This was also carried out earlier this year and much to our surprise they are fine.
Whilst this was being done, we were kept busy reviewing and altering the plans the architect drafted for us. Our original brief to the architect was for unisex toilet and showers each opening directly out onto the field. After some in depth discussions this was ruled out as it was not felt we would get planning permission due to the thermal inefficiency of this type of building and it would require total demolition of the existing building.
We have now settled on a design that reuses and extends the existing building, utilises unisex facilities within the building and is capable of being divided down to allow flexibility in the way it is used. Our architect is now in the process of gaining planning consent for this design, this planning will take until around March to be approved. Once planning is received, we can start looking for contractors to quote for the building process and refining the fittings and fixtures that will go into them.
Watch this space for updates on how we are getting on.
And if you have any questions or comments feel free to reach out to us on bog.committee@hopehill.org.uk
Richard Painting
Bog Commity
The Bog Blog - 1st Edition