WHAT started as a student's school project could end with a town's park being given a new futuristic pavilion.

Emily Garnett was charged with designing the new building as part of a challenge while a pupil at Chesham Grammar School.

Her teacher encouraged her to submit the plans to Chesham Town Council - who were so impressed with the design, they've urged her to try and make the plans on paper become a reality.

Emily spoke to more than 100 people to get their views on plans for a pavilion in Lowndes Park and even took her designs to members of the planning department at Chiltern District Council while researching her project.

Among those she spoke to was the town mayor Mohammad Fayyaz, who encouraged her to present her plans to the rest of the town council last week.

And the presentation went far better than Emily was expecting, with councillors saying she should look to get her model design built for real.

That could cost up to £100,000 but council members have pointed Emily in the direction of where she can secure funding from.

The 19-year-old, who is now studying architecture at Cambridge University, said: "I was expecting it to be split between people who liked it and those who didn't, but all the feedback was positive.

"When I started I thought it would be a project to design something and that would be the end of it. I'm surprised it's got this far. I'm very excited about it - I can't quite believe it's got this far."

The design was created as part of an Extended Project Qualification - equivalent to an AS Level - and one of Emily's teachers, Valerie Chamberlain, said she could contact the council about it.

It features a number of poles designed to look like trees to help the building blend in with its surroundings in Lowndes Park.

Emily said: "I didn't want it to look like a man made structure that had been plonked there, I wanted it to look like part of the park and for it to fit in with the landscape."