A Grade II listed church in Torfaen is replacing a portaloo with a compost toilet inside a new outbuilding.

Visitors to All Saint’s Church in Llanfrechfa currently use a portaloo at the front of the church. This week the church’s planning application to Torfaen Council to build a 2.5m x 2m x 2.3m building to house a compost toilet was approved.

As part of the application, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) wanted to be reassured about how drainage from the toilet would be managed and requested tests to be carried out. The results were sent to NRW and they confirmed they had no objections to the proposal.

Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust said the church has an ‘archaeological restraint’.

It is an Anglican parish church, with a late medieval western tower. The rest was rebuilt to a larger scale in 1873-4 by Charles Buckeridge for the Mitchell family of Llanfrechfa Grange. Buckeridge died in 1873 and the work was completed under John L. Pearson.

The Trust warned that there is ‘potential for encountering archaeological remains’ during the work so recommended that a detailed plan is made before work starts and a ‘watching brief’ is maintained in case anything is discovered.

The building will be finished with horizontal red cedar timber cladding and black corrugated metal sheet roof.

The compost toilet will be bought from NatSol, a company whose website says they are the ‘remote toilet specialists’ who supply ‘odour-free waterless and composting toilets’.