News on HS2 in Bucks & Oxfordshire

One of Britain’s oldest schools, the Royal Latin School in Buckingham, is the latest beneficiary of the HS2 Community and Environment Fund after securing a £75,000 grant to transform their sporting facilities.

Architect's drawing of the completed sports campus (Image courtesy of the Royal Latin School)

The project will mean that a new sports campus at the school will be created, containing a large fitness suite, mind and body zone, sports lab and a seminar space. The new facility will be available to community groups outside of school times as well as being used by school pupils during the school day. The facility is being built around three themes – ‘energise, enjoy and excel’. Pupils and the local community will be energised to participate in sport and physical activity through a wide variety of activities that they can enjoy and encouraged to excel with state-of-the-art facilities. There will even be visits from elite athletes.

People of all ages will be encouraged to participate and, with a programme of seminars and links with the University of the 3rd Age, the aspiration is to attract older people and adults who may have been less active since leaving school.

The funding of this project and two others this month means that 133 projects have now shared over £8million. Fifteen projects in Buckinghamshire have shared over £2.5 million between them, nearly a third of the total allocated so far. This week, our Chief Executive Officer Mark Thurston will be virtually visiting the National Paralympic Heritage Trust in Stoke Mandeville. He will hear how they continue to work through the pandemic and are using £250,000 CEF funding to deliver their project to record local Paralympic history, while reaching out to local communities, encouraging cohesion, connectivity and well-being through a wide range of activities.

Community and Business Funds

As construction of HS2 gets underway, applications for the funds are still being welcomed. Our Community and Environment Fund (CEF) and the Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF) for Phase One are worth £40 million. They give local communities and businesses disrupted by the construction of HS2 the opportunity to receive funding of up to £1 million for projects to improve their local area or support their local economy.

The Funds for Phase One, independently administered by community charity Groundwork UK, support urban and rural, community, environmental and business projects. For more information on Groundwork and the funds, including how to apply, visit https://hs2funds.org.uk/ . You can also watch our short videos which explain how to best demonstrate that your project meets the criteria for the Community, Environment or Business Funds.

If you have any questions about the Community and Business Funds, HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk .

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 .