Award-winning pupils' garden curbs surface floods

A pupils' garden designed to curb surface flooding with planters has won an award.

Chillizens Play Pocket next to Chillingham Primary School in Heaton, Newcastle, designed with the help of pupils, has scooped Best Child-Friendly Place in the Pineapples Awards, which celebrate impactful, urban projects across the UK.

The two-year, £380,000 project was launched as a collaboration including the school, city council and Lancashire-based artist Molly Bland.

Head teacher Ben Wassall said: "It uplifts mood and feelings - it has transformed the space."

Pupils helped design the garden during workshops when they drew pictures and made models of their ideas.

The project was funded by the North East Combined Authority and is part of the council's wider Newcastle East High Streets Project, which is testing different regeneration approaches in neighbourhoods.

The council said the area outside the school had previously been prone to surface flooding, which was being alleviated by the garden's planters.

Judges said the project "gave a voice to children from the local school and created a sensitive palace of arrival, a place for parents to linger, and a playspace which encourages a closeness to nature".

The council said it was planning to create four more, similar gardens in the east of the city's suburbs.

Thameshwar Kheran, 35, whose daughter attends the school, said it would be "great" to see more green spaces.

"Sometimes after school you want to give your child a snack to eat and here they can sit down and enjoy it," he said.

"You can enjoy the sun when it's out, and now spring's back, it's getting warmer and you'll find more kids and parents making use of it."

Follow BBC Newcastle on X, Facebook, Nextdoor, and Instagram.