News on HS2 in Hillingdon

Three Rivers District Council has granted planning permission for a new artist-designed landscaped play area for Maple Cross JMI school in Rickmansworth, bringing a request to HS2 from a local pupil to life.

The ambitious project to redesign the school’s grounds was initiated by a letter to HS2 from a child in Year Six at Maple Cross JMI, which asked that some of the material being excavated at the nearby South Portal construction site be brought to the school to “make a mound to roll down”.

After receiving the letter, HS2 developed a year-long programme of engagement between artist and designer Emily Cropton and the pupils, staff and wider community, in order to make the pupil’s wish come true.

The project involved educational workshops with school children in different year groups, in which they learnt about local history and the natural environment, and developed ideas for the design of their new play space.

Planning permission granted by Three Rivers District Council now means that HS2’s main works contractor Align will start the landscaping phase of the project by moving soil from its construction site 600 metres south of the school.

During the Autumn, Align’s local contractors will work with Emily Cropton to create the new play area which will include an orchard of fruit trees, a meadow of flowering plants, an area of scattered tree trunks for climbing, and a willow tunnel. There will also be a fossil wall built of clay bricks designed with the children, showing what might be found at Maple Cross in another two million years and the stories these fossils will pass on.

This project was commissioned by HS2 and delivered with the kind support of Align JV. To find out more about our works at the South Portal please click here .

If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk