Kids' outdoor play group hopes more streets will close

An organisation campaigning for children to have the freedom to play outdoors is urging people to keep closing their streets to traffic, even though the group itself is closing down.

Bristol-based Playing Out has been working for the past 17 years to persuade councils around the country to adopt policies to make playing in the street an easy option for families.

Co-founder Ingrid Skeels said it had been convenient for successive governments to blame things like children's growing screen time on "lazy parenting" when options for outdoor play were so limited.

Bristol City Council has supported the movement, and allows communities to close their streets for up to three hours once a week.

Speaking to BBC Bristol, Skeels - who is hopeful the movement will continue - said: "Children are trapped indoors a lot of the time, not active, not with other people, and screens have filled that void massively."

Playing in the street had once been "an open access offer" to all children, she said.

"That was your route to health and to learning how to make friends and learning how to be resilient."

But with increased traffic, this had now been replaced by play dates, classes and clubs, she added.

"All of that really depends on having a bit of money, a parent who can take you, and possibly a car," she said.

Skeels added: "Children being able to just go outside and play just makes so much sense from every possible angle.

"We've gradually, as a society, made that impossible but it is possible to undo that."

Skeels and Play Out's other co-founders say they have decided to wind up the community interest company (CIC) at the end of the month because their own children are now in their 20s.

But all its resources will remain online.

Shani Ali, who set up a number of play streets outside a primary school in Hartcliffe, said traffic, litter, dog fouling and anti-social behaviour had put parents off allowing children out.

"I think it doesn't feel that safe," she said, adding the play streets made children "realise there were these incredible green spaces right on their doorstep".

"It was almost like magic for children, which is kind of odd because I'm old enough to remember, 'well, actually, that's just normal'."

Playing Out has persuaded about 100 councils around the country to put in similar policies and estimates there are now about 16,000 streets that regularly close to cars.

At an event at Bristol City Hall last week, visitors from all over the country came together to discuss how to keep up momentum around the movement.

Sarah Parker, founder of Play Out Hartlepool, has set up events in areas struggling with issues like anti-social behaviour and drug and alcohol abuse.

She found that while people were keen, they often lacked the confidence to organise a play street themselves.

"We would help by at least initially providing volunteers to steward and that kind of thing," she said.

A weekly session in a working men's club car park now has up to 50 children attending, she said.

"It's brilliant to see diverse backgrounds meeting together because play is a universal language for people," she said.

"Playing Out Bristol has been a massive part of making that happen - we definitely wouldn't have started playing streets without their support in terms of providing a structure."

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