What is a play street?
A play street is a community or school-led initiative to close a road for a few hours either as a one-off event or a regular activity. This reclaims the road from vehicles and means children can play safely in the road together.
A play street gives children a chance to play and make friends on their street and adults the opportunity to socialise with their neighbours in a car-free environment.
How we support play streets
We support play streets where we can by:
- deciding if a road can be temporarily closed safely
- publishing the formal legal notices necessary to close a road.
We can permit temporary street closures at regular weekly or monthly intervals. We can also provide support, advice and guidance to residents who want to introduce a play street to their community.
How play streets work
Local parents and residents volunteer to manage the closure process from start to finish, but we will offer guidance along the way. Volunteers must manage:
- putting the proposal together
- consulting with residents on the street
- submitting the application
- marshaling traffic at the closure points on the day of the closure
- setting up at the start
- cleaning up at the end.
The road will be closed to traffic and the area should be kept as car-free as possible. If a resident needs to drive to and from their home, volunteers should guide them slowly through the play street at walking pace.
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Regular opportunities to organise a play street
We offer the following opportunities to run play streets:
- School summer play street (every July): application deadline 1 June 2019.
-
London Car Free Day (every September): application deadline 1 September 2019.
- Regular play streets (monthly closures throughout the year): no specific deadline, but the application process tends to take six to eight weeks.
You can find more information about each type of play street below, but the same application process and guidance notes apply.
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