Playing Out: Summer’s here and the time is right for playing in the street!

Primary Times reports on the national growth of Playing Out, an initiative allowing neighbours to close their streets to traffic so children can discover the joy of outdoor play.

Children kicking a ball, playing hopscotch or pushing a toy pram along a public street … in today’s, traffic-dominated outdoor environment with building works on every corner, these images seem the stuff of Pathé newsreels or old newspaper cuttings. But a parent-led idea, taking root all over the UK, is bringing back safe outdoor play for children by temporarily closing off residential streets, allowing kids to run around freely outside their front doors.

Playing Out, founded by four Bristol mothers in 2011, is a community interest company whose ‘play street’ model is now supported by 54 UK councils including Brighton & Hove, Cambridgeshire, Coventry, Chichester and York, not to mention 15 London boroughs such as Haringey, Camden, Croydon, Ealing and Islington. At least 49 further local authorities are interested in putting a street play policy in place.

Over 650 street communities around the UK have now regularly closed their street to traffic and opened it for children to play. “Parents find it changes their street,” says Playing Out co-founder Ingrid Skeels. “They get to meet their neighbours and create a safer place with a better community feel. On a play street, children experience playing outside their home perhaps once a month or once a week. They become more independent and get to make friends on their own street.”

The benefits of outdoor play are enormous, she explains. While a large body of research shows that children need a minimum of one hour per day of moderate to vigorous activity, only one in five British children are achieving that level. That means 80% are not. “Bristol University evaluated Playing Out over three years,” she says. “Using pedometers and other tools they discovered that children are three to five times more active if they have a playing out session after school.”

While play dates and trips to the park are common ways for today’s children to socialise and get about, playing in the street has its own unique benefits, Ingrid says. “The point is, it’s close to home, right where they live. They start meeting other children of different ages and backgrounds, learning how to problem solve and manage social situations. And you can’t keep them still!”

While the initiative has already enjoyed remarkable success, Playing Out hopes that many more councils and parents’ groups across the UK will come on board. “Often residents phone up and say, ‘We want to do this, why haven’t we got it?’, so a lot of them have used the Bristol model.”

For the areas which have a Playing Out policy, organising a regular traffic free afternoon is relatively straightforward. First, discuss the idea with neighbours and set some dates: try to get at least one other neighbour actively involved with the planning. Then apply to the council about six weeks in advance, allowing time for consultation with residents and recruiting stewards (at least four). Once the first date is set and permission granted, let everyone know about it with flyers, window posters and good old-fashioned door knocking. Finally, enjoy the day, not forgetting to remind children that the street reopens to traffic after the event.

For those areas that don’t yet have a street play policy in place, you should be able to do a one-off session using the street party process. But you might want to lobby councillors to set up a scheme, and Playing Out is more than happy to provide advice on how to do this.

Occasionally, organisers have met some resistance from motorists but the Playing Out website has a range of tips on how to address common concerns. “Some people say roads are for cars, but that is just how they have become, as traffic has gradually increased over the years; they’re actually a public space for everyone,” says Ingrid. “The main reason children aren’t playing outside is not screens or stranger danger, it’s traffic. But generally drivers are really good when you ask them to go round the other way.”

Many parents have enthused about the scheme, citing benefits including children from different schools getting to know each other, getting to know the neighbours, including elderly people, and creating a real sense of community. "Playing out has really helped bridge the generation gap. It's been a very positive experience," says one.

Soon, then, instead of looking at faded historical images of children playing in the street, you may be able to watch it in glorious technicolour as your kids rediscover the joys of playing outside their front doors.

 

Local authorities with a temporary street play policy
Adur and Worthing, Bath and North East Somerset, Birmingham, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Chichester, Derby, East Cambridgeshire, East Northamptonshire, Edinburgh, Fenland, Greenwich, Hull, Huntingdonshire, Kingston-upon-Thames, Leeds, Lewes, Liverpool, London Boroughs (Brent, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Redbridge, Southwark, Sutton, Waltham Forest), Mid Sussex, Monmouthshire, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Newcastle, Northampton, Northamptonshire, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, South Cambridgeshire, South Northamptonshire, St Albans, Stockport, Swindon, West Sussex, Wyre Forest, York. For further information, go to: www.playingout.net

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