Over the last two years, HS2’s enabling works contractor LM JV (Laing O'Rourke and J. Murphy & Sons) has planted 60,000 trees in the Cubbington area, including oak, hazel, birch, holly and hawthorn.

Seven new ponds are attracting swallows and swifts and are now home to newts, frogs and insects. There are also refuges and basking banks for reptiles, bat boxes and fruit trees which will grow more quickly than other trees to provide potential bat roosting habitat.

Around 17 hectares of habitat have been created around South Cubbington, including over six hectares of broadleaved wood linking the habitats of South Cubbington Wood and the River Leam Corridor. It also includes approximately two hectares of translocated ancient woodland soils to join up South Cubbington Wood and Weston Wood.

James Hicks, Biodiversity Policy Specialist, HS2, said:

“We’re really pleased to see such an array of wildlife in our mitigation sites around South Cubbington Wood. The density and range of the wildflowers in the area is especially exciting, showing how translocated soils are showing regrowth including ground fauna from the ancient woodland."