Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Two 'Play Streets' in Haringey
Two streets in Haringey were designated play streets last Sunday, as reported by Haringey Council
Cycles, scooters and tricycles were used with abandon on Avondale Road and Clarendon Road as children explored the traffic free space.
Haringey Council has arranged for the fun to continue once a month over the coming year, and the events could even become a permanent fixture if they prove popular....
We saw how quickly our children responded each time the road was closed for our street parties - -out would come the scooters, trikes, bikes, coloured chalk - we thought it would be great if we could introduce Play Streets right here.
Good to see them getting off the ground in Haringey - now we just need volunteers with a bit of time to organise some more (not me at the moment I'm afraid).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liza on
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Go avondale and clarendon !,Thanks Paul and all others who organised this. And nice that the street parties blazed a trail... Can't wait to get the kids out for the next one.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Harvey on
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It was great fun for all involved - well worth organising. The kids had an absolute ball and took full advantage of all that wonderful space to play around in. If anyone else is considering this for their street(s) then do drop us a line and we can advise on the process involved in getting it up and running, and pass on learning from our first go last week.
My two absolutely loved it and can't wait for the next one in a few weeks time... let's hope this weather holds up!
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Permalink Reply by David OS on
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Very happy to hear about this. I read about a similar thing in Bristol (reclaiming the streets for kids) set up by two mothers "keen to give their children a taste of the simple freedom they themselves had enjoyed growing up". This bit made me smile: "We had a play professional from the council come to one of the early sessions," recalls Amy. "She asked how we had got the children to cover so many of the different types of play. Of course we hadn't done anything at all..." Kids know how to play without being taught huh? Who'd have thought it?
The article really struck a chord with me - and I thought at the time this would be great to organise here: I'd like my daughter to experience it and get the chance to meet other kids in the neighbourhood. I can't commit to helping organise right now (although may be able to in future). But for anything that is organised I can probably help out on the day.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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I would really like to make contact with the folks who organised this. I was aware you were giving it a go. I would love to give it a go on Pemberton and would like to have a chat about how you went about it if possible. Paul, was this you and others?
As far as I can see the process is very similar to the approach I took to try to close Pemberton in Nov last year for a street BBQ. On that occasion I was rebuffed after a lot of backwards and forwards. The council told me they would only allow it if we employed a private contractor to 'marshal' the event and we provided our own signs to divert traffic etc- at a cost of around £1,000... How did you get around this requirement?
Needless to say, the BBQ went ahead irrespective of what the fun police would have had us do, the road was not closed and I did not erect barriers on the path to segregate the road and footpath! It would be great to improve on this given how much our street is used by a lot of its children already. I would love to be able to close it for however short a length of time to let them roam safely and play football in an area larger than a hanky!
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Feel free to give me a call; I'll email you separately.
But the process is more or less this: you set a up a meeting with your street to explain the idea and sound out support. You'll need to decide the area of road(s) to be closed, and the days, frequency and length of the closure. At some point you'll also need to go door-to-door and get a list of signatures supporting the plan. It's also a good opportunity to start asking for help--you'll need volunteers for stewarding and leafleting.
Once you can show there's interest, contact Cllr Canver--I think she's overseeing things during this pilot phase. If you've got support, the next stage is to deliver a formal consultation letter to every household affected, which gives people a period of time to object or raise concerns. Once that window's expired (can't remember the time period off hand), you submit your application along with the consultation letter, your list of signatures and an £80 fee. When approved, the council issues a public notice about the road closure and you have to wait for another 21 days (I think) for this to pass without objections. That's pretty much it on the formal side.
Other things include deciding whether or not to go for public liability insurance (it's not compulsory), and making sure you've got enough volunteers to steward the road access points (i.e. residents on your street, not contractors!). I'm not sure what the council are planning to do about providing road closed signs... we've been loaned some heavy-duty ones that would be too expensive to hire. But I gather that some councils provide low-cost plastic ones for free.
Obviously, this is for setting up a regular play street, not a street party. If people want to bring out food etc, fantastic (it's great to involve as many residents as possible, and anyway, kids can't have all the fun!). But you'd want to make sure things like BBQs were in front gardens rather than out in the road/pavements where children are playing.
I hope to update our play street blog with these and other details--will post here when I've done that.
But in the meantime, do check out playingout.net (by the people in Bristol who started it all). Great resources and advice; their 'Playing Out Manual' is definitely worth a read.
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