A COMMUNITY pub has completed a £10,000 extension project with a new entrance an accessible toilets that are twinned with loos in developing countries.

The Great Bromley Cross also has a new community space upstairs to host events including craft fairs and training courses for local businesses.

And the new toilets have been twinned with household loos in Afghanistan, Malawi, Nepal and Pakistan.

A quiz was held raising £200, which paid for the toilets to be twinned in a project called Toilet Twinning which uses the funding to provide clean water, basic sanitation and hygiene education in developing countries.

Each cubicle has a certificate showing where the toilet is twinned including GPS co-ordinates so you can look it up on Google Maps.

The new extension came after grants totalling more than £100,000 were awarded from GCG Environment Trust, Essex County Council Community Infrastructure Fund and Low Carbon Across the South East.

Owen Blowers, chairman of the community group which runs The Great Bromley Cross, said: “The local community raised £210, 000 through the sale of community shares, which enabled us to buy the pub and make some improvements, but our grant funders’ generosity enabled us to do so much more with our limited funds.

"We upgraded our heating and cellar cooling to be more energy efficient, with improved insulation and automatic low-energy lighting, reducing our carbon emissions.

"And we have installed a 24/7 RADAR key accessible toilet, which is already appearing on maps of accessible toilets, meaning anyone with a RADAR key can use it day or night”.

The new entrance area and toilets follows other renovation projects which saw a new kitchen installed and the opening up of the pub into one big room.

Pub Manager, Amanda Lucas, said: "We are delighted with these improvements.

"The completion of these projects means that The Great Bromley Cross can offer far more than ever before for local people and visitors to the area.

"Our goal was for The Great Bromley Cross to be more than a pub, with its Wednesday morning pop up post office, coffee shop and library, and these new facilities allow us to fulfil that ambition.”

For for more information about the pub and its events visit greatbromleycross.org.uk