Playing Out: The Movement Encouraging Parents To Fight For Their Children's Right To Play Outside In Their Streets | HuffPost Life

'It wasn’t normal or acceptable for kids to play outside.'

By

Life editor at HuffPost UK

|

Parents are being encouraged to apply to close their streets to cars and champion the right for their kids to play outside.

Playing Out, a grass-roots organisation that aims to enable children to safely play outside their front doors, was co-founded by neighbours Alice Ferguson, 45, and Amy Rose in 2009.

Ferguson and Rose, from Bristol, wanted to get the space outside their houses blocked from cars, so kids could play freely and get to know other children nearby.

What started off as an individual action, has now turned into a nationwide movement, with more than 500 streets taking part in the UK.

“It wasn’t normal or acceptable for kids to play outside at the time,” Ferguson told HuffPost UK. “To get the road blocked off, you had to apply to the cancel each time you wanted to do it and put a letter through every door on the street.”

Playing Out

Playing Out in Bristol.

Before Playing Out started their campaign, to get a street closed off from cars in Bristol you would need to apply for a Street Party Licence from the local council - you would have to go through this process each time and residents could only apply for a one off license a maximum of three times a year.

Ferguson and her neighbours ran a pilot where they supported six streets in their area to do one-off sessions where they applied to get their road closed and allowed children to play outside.

“We literally just closed the road for cars and let the kids play in a child-led, natural way,” said Ferguson.

“During this pilot, the cabinet member for health from Bristol City Council, councillor Jon Rogers, came and he saw it in action. He said it was genius.

“It was low cost, resident-led and a way to get kids physically active.”

PlayingOut

It was this pilot that got the ball rolling to make street closures a more regular occurrence, with less hassle to apply.

The cabinet minster was able to push a model through the council that enabled this and, despite some resistance concerning traffic flow, the council was won around.

Off the back of this, a new process called a ‘Temporary Play Street Order’ was introduced.

This allowed residents to close their roads for up to three hours a week, and they would only have to apply once for a whole year. Ferguson said the council became champions of the idea and promoted it to other local authorities.

It was around this time Rose and Ferguson set up Playing Out to make a hub for other parents who were keen on the idea.

“It was low cost, resident-led and a way to get kids physically active."”
- Alice Ferguson, co-founder of Playing Out

The procedure was simple and worked well. In Ferguson’s area the road would be closed for around two hours a week. There would be two adults at each end of the street to a) redirect traffic and b) monitor residents who wanted to drive in or out.

“Our streets are an extension of our home,” Ferguson added. “They are the public space that is immediately accessible to our children.

“The children all loved it.”

For the next five years, Ferguson and her neighbours carried on closing their street - sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly - to allow their kids to play outside. By this time, many other streets in the UK had picked up on the idea too.

Now Ferguson’s kids have grown up, she’s still committed to ensuring other children get the opportunity to play outside.

PlayingOut

The new licence model is now used in more than 500 streets across the UK, and within more than 60 local authorities.

And the mum is committed to the idea being a vehicle of social change in the community, so that it can one day be considered “normal” for kids to play outside without having to worry about safety.

“This is now being used by thousands of people across the country and our aim is to keep growing,” she added. “We want to grow to the point where it becomes normal.

“This model is just one step towards normalising street play.”

Find out more about Playing Out here.

Before You Go

10 Mess-Free Sensory Play Activities

Smell: Herb garden(01 of10)

Help them grow their own fragrant herb garden and allow them to pick, rub and smell the different scents. Choose bold, contrasting scents such as mint, rosemary, basil and lemon thyme. Take out a bowl of water and a wooden spoon and they can even create their own ‘magic potion’ by selecting the herbs and adding them to the mix. (credit:Jorn Georg Tomter via Getty Images)

Sound: Shoebox guitar(02 of10)

Cut a circular hole in the lid of a shoebox then wrap and fix six large elastic bands around the box as strings to create a DIY guitar for your pint-sized rock star. If you want to take things to the next level, you could even cut holes at either end of the box and push through an empty kitchen foil roll for the neck. (credit:Mike Dunning via Getty Images)

Touch: Spaghetti worms(03 of10)

Cooked spaghetti has a fascinating texture for children. It can represent anything from wiggly worms to seaweed. To ramp up the visual appeal as well as the tactile experience of squishing the spaghetti through their little fingers, you could consider adding a little natural food colouring to the cooking water. Or why not hide toys inside and have your little one rummage around for the ‘treasure’. (credit:VeselovaElena via Getty Images)

Taste: Sweet, sour or salty(04 of10)

Encourage your child to explore their taste buds by tasting sweet, sour and salty flavours, which will bring different areas of their mouth alive. Put honey, salt and lemon juice in different bowls and discover the concepts of sweet, salty and sour. Don’t go overboard - just a tiny amount is needed on a fingertip for your little one to experience the flavour. Steer clear of the raw chillies, though! (credit:ziggy_mars via Getty Images)

Touch: Sensory balloons(05 of10)

Create super-squeezy rubber stress balls by filling balloons with different materials, such as sand, dried beans or polystyrene balls, and have them explore the different textures. Make sure the balloons are sealed and knotted tight and that your toddler is supervised at all times as the contents of the balloons are potential choking hazards. (credit:Martin Child via Getty Images)

Sound: DIY musical shakers(06 of10)

Create your own DIY musical shakers by filling plastic jars or containers with different objects, such as beads, buttons, sequins, pebbles and coins. Encourage them to listen to carefully to the different sounds the objects make. Remember to tape up the lids securely as these small objects can be a choking hazard. (credit:Lisa Stokes via Getty Images)

Touch: Water play(07 of10)

Kids love playing with water and bubbles - but winter doesn’t have to mean the end of wet play activities. Have playtime in the bath. No hair-washing or cleaning behind the ears - just lots of bubbles, toys and good, clean fun. Toddlers should never be left unsupervised in the bath. (credit:sodapix sodapix via Getty Images)

Smell: What’s that smell?(08 of10)

Fill a number of plastic containers with strong-smelling items from the kitchen, such as coffee, cinnamon, and cumin, or rose petals and lavender from the garden, and have them guess the different aromas. (credit:Larry Washburn via Getty Images)

Sound: Tin can phone(09 of10)

It’s an oldie but a goodie: Connect two clean, empty tin cans with a long piece of string (ensure the cans have no sharp edges) and enjoy the acoustic effect of talking to one another on the ‘telephone’. (credit:PIXTA via Getty Images)

Touch: Rough with the smooth(10 of10)

Create a texture board by cutting up scraps of different textured materials, such as sandpaper, corrugated cardboard, shiny plastic and fake fur, and have your toddler compare them. (credit:IvanJekic via Getty Images)

Suggest a correction

|