Cheers! Pupils’ bar plan scoops top award

Ambitious plans for a sustainable community bar and restaurant to bring together students and local residents have won a team of teenagers a coveted prize.

The team of geography pupils at Malvern College in Worcestershire won the 15-16-year old category in the My Environment My Future competition for their ideas on how to revamp a derelict former shop on the outskirts of Malvern town centre.

The competition drew entries from over 850 young people across the UK who presented thoughtful and sustainable designs for redeveloping a building or space in their local areas.

My Environment My Future is a school programme which aims to embed knowledge, resources and guidance on careers within the built environment into the GCSE and A Level Geography curriculum.

It is supported by the likes of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Skills Builder Partnership.

For their submission the Malvern College pupils – twins Max and Seb Wilson, Ethan Chan, and Henry Needham – put together a proposal to turn a former shop, which has had a planning application to turn it into a house and garage rejected – into a vibrant community bar.

The plans included an outside performance area for pupils to take the stage, as well as a garden which would provide food to the restaurant’s kitchen.

Other proposals included bike storage, a waste management program designed to minimise impact on the environment, the use of biodegradable and compostable products, on-site composting, smart lighting and solar panels.

The pupil’s ambitious ideas also included teaming up with a local food bank to donate any excess food.

Ethan Chan said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this award. A big part of what we look at in our geography studies is the environment around us and how that can be developed in a sustainable way. Malvern is a great case study for this because of the surrounding hills and the number of listing buildings around us.

“We also talk a lot about Malvern College’s place in the community, so when we were coming up with ideas, it seemed like a logical step to combine the two. We would love to see this plan become reality!”

Malvern College headmaster Keith Metcalfe said: “We’re very proud of Max, Seb, Ethan and Henry. Their ideas encompass many of the Malvern Qualities that we seek to instil in all our pupils and we love their plans for this bar.”