4:53pm Monday 12th March 2012
By Hermione Wright
A former toilet in Queen's Wood in Muswell Hill has been transformed into a tool shed for volunteers.
The Victorian toilet, which has been closed for years, received a boost of £5,000 after a successful bid for council funding from the Friends of Queen’s Wood volunteer group last September.
The money came as part of the Make the Difference scheme run by Haringey Council.
A pot of £25,000 was saved by the council to pay for a variety of projects that would make a difference to the borough.
The volunteer group, which help clear up the park for two hours on the last Sunday of every month, asked for the money to provide a secure place to store the garden tools they use when tending to the wood.
The money paid for a new door to be put into the tool space, which was previously closed up with bricks, and for the roof to be made watertight.
Work on the former toilet started just after Christmas, and although it is not yet finished, it is now open for volunteers to use.
Councillor Gail Engert (Lib Dem, Muswell Hill) visited the park, which is between Muswell Hill Road and Onslow Gardens, on Thursday to see the changes to the toilet.
She said there were still some finishing touches that need to be added to the tool shed, including installing new shelves for the tools and getting rid of the toilet and the urinal, which are still inside the building.
She said: “This is exactly what the Making the Difference funding is designed to do – helping residents who give so much back to the community by volunteering to make Queen’s Wood such a lovely place to be.”
Toilets continue to be available in the Queen’s Wood Cafe.
Community groups had until August 23 last year to make bids of up to £5,000 for worthwhile projects in the borough – each one aiming to bring a lasting improvement to the borough.
A new parking bay to prevent cars from backing into motorcycles was installed on Princes Avenue in Muswell Hill last month as part of the scheme.
The community scheme has now been scrapped by the council as part of tough cuts made by central government.
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