THERE’S chalk on the pavement, bikes and scooters hurtling up the street, skipping ropes, anarchic games of tig running right across the road… and a distinct lack of traffic. Welcome to street play – a community-based approach to encouraging children back out to play that campaigners insist should be rolled out right across Scotland.
With research showing children spend on average four hours outside a week – half the time of their parent’s generation – it is claimed all local authorities must get behind the street play movement, under which residents apply to the council to close the road to traffic and allow children to play safely outside their homes.
READ MORE: Edinburgh becomes urban playground during architecture festival
Edinburgh is leading the way with community groups able to apply for regular slots to close certain residential streets to traffic throughout the summer and beyond under its Play Streets scheme.
Some events take place today. This summer Glasgow City Council is allowing local road closures during four weekends, and East Renfrewshire has piloted its own scheme.
But according to parents and professionals, the initiative should be rolled out nationally to allow monthly, or even weekly closures done by the much lauded Playing Out scheme in Bristol.
They argue encouraging manageable, outdoor play is essential to tackle health issues such as obesity, diabetes and rickets and rebalance the stressful, online orientated and over-scheduled lives of 21st century kids.
Thomas Lynch, from Edinburgh, whose sons are now 10 and two-years-old, was first inspired to set-up a play event on his own street in 2014, after attending a presentation on Bristol’s Playing Out. Five years on, he will be putting out the cones for street games and bike riding later today for the first of the street’s summer play sessions and is still convinced of the benefits.
READ MORE: Launch of kids day out drive
“It’s about getting kids back out playing on the street but it’s also about the community,” he said. “It’s a great way of meeting your neighbours. Maybe the parents need to stand back a bit, but often the adults end up skipping or remembering the games they used to play and doing them with their kids.”
Sessions are helping his older son to gain confidence riding his bike on the road, he claims, and allow kids of all ages to socialise and build bonds through games and creative play that can last year round. But he admits that, while it’s important to be sensitive to the needs of all the neighbours, more regular closures would bring greater benefits. “There is a strong argument that if we did this every month it would normalise it,” he added.
Craig Thomson, founder and manager of Operation Play Outdoors, which runs sessions at some Glasgow’s street play sessions, agrees.
He said: “At the moment there is still an emphasis on closing roads only on set weekends because it’s easier to manage. This is a positive step but the English model where they close the road on a weekly basis is where we’d want to get to.
“I think a weekly event is how you really build friendships and show that the street is a place to play regularly. Parents can grow more confident and with the increased time outdoors you get all those physical and mental benefits. That is how you help change attitudes to street play.”
He claims free play outdoors is something some children – who spend much of their time in front of screens, doing scheduled activities or playing with prescriptive toys, now have little experience of. “Sometimes I’ll work with children who will just stand around and look at me when I tell them they can play,” he said. “Free play is important because it’s about intrinsic motivations – they can explore in the way that they want to. It allows them both to be physical and explore their imaginations. Young people in UK has the worst mental health in Europe. Going outdoors is something that can help release stress.”
According to Marguerite Hunter-Blair, director of Play Scotland, the chance to play outdoors is a right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK – but is one many children are denied. She says regular street play events could change a culture of hostility to children playing in public space.
Currently police report regular complaints by neighbours irritated by children playing, while last month families living on a housing development in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, were sent a letter by the property factor demanding children stop using chalk while playing hopscotch. She said: “Schemes like [street play] are needed because children are not welcome in public space. They shouldn’t need permission to go out and play – and yet at the moment, they do. I think we need to have a system like we do with the markets, where we have streets closed off on the first or the last Sunday of the month.”
She claimed reports last week that cases of rickets in Scotland are rising “at speed” because too many children are playing indoors were “shameful” adding: “If we are serious about tackling obesity, or rickets, then we need to line-up the [play friendly] policies and make them available across Scotland. Children get rickets because they don’t have enough vitamin D – but they can get it outside even when it’s not sunny from April to October. They need to be outside to play.
“We are lobbying for the space for them to do that. It can just be on a double width pavement, it doesn’t need to be anything fancy.
“We are not campaigning for swings and roundabouts here. It’s about changing the culture and making the case for children to have a space to play near their homes.”
Claire Daly, policy manager of Sustrans Scotland, is also supportive of the call. “Children need places to play that are safe from traffic, or at least not dominated by cars,” she added. “Many housing developments, particularly in suburban areas, implement planning guidelines that prioritise car parking space over play space for our children.
“Worse still, the prevalence of ‘no ball games’ and fears that giving children communal space to play will encourage ‘lingering’ betrays an attitude to children and young people that we really need to question.
“What children really need is a place they can be outside, near where they live, to play with friends and let their imaginations run free.”
Campaigners are hopeful an amendment to the planning bill, due to be heard later this month could put a duty on developers to create adequate play space for children, helping support their aims.
Glasgow Councillor Anna Richardson, who oversees the city’s street play scheme, claimed that longer-term, streets should be better designed to put children’s play at the heart of the community. She added: “The ideal is that we get to a place where we don’t need to close roads – we’ve got roads that are no longer rat-runs, there are traffic calming measures in place, lots more space for walking and cycling. But this is a really nice initiative that lets people see what that could look like.”
She claimed Glasgow City Council had made good progress, starting with just one free date a year offered in 2015, expanded to include two weekends last year, while this year communities can choose from four summer weekends including June 21/22 – or even close their street for a few hours once a month from May to September.
“It’s a very manageable thing to get involved in,” she said. “Some streets will use it as an excuse for a party, but for others it’s just getting a few cones in place, getting out the chalk and the bikes and maybe a deck chair to sit on and watch them play.” But she conceded more regular play would have greater benefits.
In Edinburgh, transport and environment vice-convener, Councillor Karen Doran, also claims street play events are part of a boarder ambition to “re-think” traffic priorities in the city. The local authority is still the only one in Scotland to have a 20mph limit in residential streets, though Glasgow City Council passed a bill to follow suit earlier this year.
This week the Scottish Parliament failed to give backing to a Scotland-wide bill – due to be heard in coming weeks – proposing the lower limit is set as a default in residential streets.
“It’s clear such events help to build strong community spirit, enabling children to flourish through free and active play,” added Dorran. Last month the city launched its Open Streets scheme, where Old Town streets are closed to traffic.
She said: “This, alongside strategic work like City Centre Transformation and the various significant active travel projects, is about rethinking the way we move around Edinburgh, opening up our streets for walking, cycling and relaxing, to the benefit of residents, visitors and our future generations.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here