IN 1950 a five-year plan was put in place to build 10 new public toilets in Malvern.

After a considerable delay, the Ministry of Health had agreed to fund two new blocks near the centre of town, at a cost of £3,000 each.

Malvern had suffered from a policy of building public conveniences in 'discreetly screened positions', as a result of which the town lacked facilities in useful locations.

This is just one of the interesting snippets to be gleaned from a report by Mr C C Judson, surveyor and water engineer to Malvern Urban District Council, and published in the Malvern Gazette.

Two sandpits and a paddling pool had been built at Priory Park.

A suggestion by Mr Judson that a pump should be added to provide a fountain for the pool had been turned down out of sympathy for parents!

A scheme to build modern dressing rooms to replace the wooden cubicles, which served Priory Park's open-air pool at the time, had been put in the "bottom draw" until economic conditions improved.

Lack of car parks was already becoming a major problem.

Grange Road had been widened to provide parking spaces for 30 cars and £2,600 spent to build a car park off Grange Road.

Since the war, Malvern Council had built 408 permanent homes and 84 temporary bungalows, in addition to 110 by private firms and 166 by the Ministry of Works for Ministry of Supply personnel.

But in spite of this, there were still 600 names on the Council's waiting list for homes.

In 1950 about 90 per cent of Malvern's water supply was pumped from Bromsberrow and the water was treated with chlorine and ammonia.

Until June, 1949, the town's refuse had been used to generate power at the Malvern Electricity Works, but this was closed down as it was considered uneconomic. After that refuse was tipped at the Barnards Green Sewage Works.