Allotments 4 All

Can any one help me please?

I'm trying to get some toilets on our site but i need to do some research first  ???

i.e. what type to get?
     how much it will cost?
     do we need a disabled one?
     and is there any where we could get grants from?

Any advise would be appreciated  :) 
Thanks
Gill
     

Ours are on a concrete base, connected to the mains and in a purpose built breeze block "Block" cost us around £20,000 but mostly covered by grants from the council ana "Awards for All". We were lucky as there was already a mains sewer under our drive, which we share with Eon who have a substation on our site... land bought in the 60's... If you want any more details just ask...  :)

thanks for that
we dont have a sewer on site, so one like yours might not be possible,and also we are on a water metre so need to be careful how much we use!  but if you have any advice on claiming the 'awards for all' grant i'd be greatful. Do you know if there are any web site's i could look at to find out what i need to do?

Quote from: gixer on February 17, 2009, 20:34:08
thanks for that
we dont have a sewer on site, so one like yours might not be possible,and also we are on a water metre so need to be careful how much we use!  but if you have any advice on claiming the 'awards for all' grant i'd be greatful. Do you know if there are any web site's i could look at to find out what i need to do?

As you don't have a sewer available, it comes down to either a septic tank set-up (expensive, even if allowed by regulations or if you have your own shed your could use a portable toilet as caravanner's do (cost £55, I bought one last week). Waste could be dug into the ground (there is a "green" fluid which can be used.

we're looking into a composting toilet, plenty of plans on the net..we do not have access to water for flushing so this is the only way  ;D

This may be worth a look its still a camping chemical toilet but its a very good price
http://www.discover.co.uk/camping/furniture/toilets/1/kampa-khazi-toilet/1

we put a nat sol composting toilet on our site at the end of last year, we got a grant from the lotto for the unit and another from our local council to put it up.

Our allotment society had some spare cash and decided it was worth spending some of it on allotment toilets. They have to be the compost variety and we favour that anyway. Flushing loos would be a lot of bother, even if they were feasible.

The necessary approvals for our allotment toilets from Barnet Council came through last month - the secretary says there were no particular problems except for the reams of paperwork! 

We've arranged with a contractor to have the base units (that is, the tank part which involves heavy digging etc) installed next month.

It will be down to us to assemble the cabins and put them in place - they come as flat packs. Subject to further advice from the contractor, a group of us will be getting together to do this.

We built a composting loo ourselves last year.  It's made from mainly recycled materials so only cost a few hundred pounds - the design of the system came out of a book and we have a couple of people who can build.  We also have no mains water or sewers on site.  Before the new loo was built, we had an Elsan chemical toilet - emptying it was not a popular job!

Here are pictures I posted last year:


http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,43295.0.html

We've recently received grants from our local councils towards the installation of a nat sol disabled access compost toilet (we have to pay part of the cost);  currently we are awaiting for a decision from the VAT people as to whether we can be exempt from VAT on the purchase of this, especially as one of the schools who bring children to the allotments regularly is for children with special and additional needs and some are in wheelchairs.
Currently we have a 'porta-potti' caravanners chemical toilet in a shed and this has worked well (we have two local schools who bring children onto our field regularly and we needed toilet facilities for them, as well as our plot holders)  - except that its 'grown in popularity' among our plot holders which means more frequent emptying, which isn't a pleasant job.

my society rents a portaloo for 6 months of the year. It gets removed in Nov and replaced in April. I could check out the costs if you are interested?

I'm interested in this topic as we have no toilets on our site and over the years members have wanted to have a toilet.  I have always asked who is going to keep it clean.  I don't mind what I do for the society but cleaning toilets is a no no  ;D  ;D  ;D  When mentioning the cleaning the subject is usually dropped.

So, how do other site's cope with keeping them clean?

thankyou for all your replies
1066,   i would be interested to here how much the rental costs are?
and does any one know how much it will cost to install a composting toilet as when we enquire to our committee they always state prices like £5000 which would be far to much for our small site.

I would really like to get this going as we would like to encourage more disabled groups and schools on our site
Gill

looking at last years accounts it was under £700 - we only have the loo on site from Easter till approx Nov, so not a full year, also it wasn't a disabled one, but don't know if that would affect the price
As to the cleaning I think its the loo fairies  ;D  aka the committee  :o

The Allotment Regeneration Initiative has a fact / info sheet on affordable toilets for allotments, why not contact your local mentor or: www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari

We have one compost loo but it is on the other side of the site on an unlit bit of wasteland full of badger sets and piles of compost - not good when its dark and you have had a few beers!

At the weekend tried digging my own compost loo behind my shed, but found that the area was built on a rubbish dump. Literally. Having dug three foot and dragged out loads of plastic and scrap metal, from curtain rails to pieces of bed, I gave up and filled it back in.

Plan B is to get a toilet tent and one of those camping khazis Al37 mentions.