We love play streets! Whether you close your street to traffic as a one-off, or make it a regular thing, they are a really enjoyable way to create a few hours when children and adults can play and socialise in front of their flats and houses without having to worry about the traffic. The benefits of play streets are well documented with health, happiness and a sense of belonging at the heart of their positive effects on children and communities .
Luckily, City of Edinburgh Council have made it very easy to organise a play street of your own and there is a wealth of information on the website of Playing Out, the organisation that promotes play streets. This includes webinars and articles about the benefits to children, templates for letters, invitations, risk assessments and much more.
We have first-hand experience of organising play streets in Corstorphine and are more than happy to share advice and knowledge. Just contact us via our contact form or email admin@lowtrafficcorstorphine.org.uk and we can have a chat.
The Basics
Step 1: Talk to your neighbours! Let the residents of your street know that you’d like to organise a play street. The easiest thing is to put a letter through everyone’s door with contact details so that people with concerns can talk to you and hopefully have their questions answered. Allow plenty of time to bring people on board with your idea and don’t forget to ask permission from businesses or other organisations who may be affected by the closure.
Step 2: If you have enough support from your neighbours, apply to the City of Edinburgh Council for a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) for the street closure. The downloadable form (called Public Spaces Event Application Form) can be found via the Culture Edinburgh page for Roads. You need to allow 12 weeks for them to process the application. They will ask for a plan/map showing where you want to put barriers plus a risk assessment. Your play street needs to be safe so we recommend that you have volunteers to monitor the barriers and a system to clear the street if a resident needs to get their car in or out.
Step 3: Once your TTRO has been approved, you’ll be emailed notices to print out, laminate and display at either end of the street to show that you have legal permission to close the road. These need to be displayed for a minimum of 48 hours beforehand. The Council will drop the barriers off the night before.
Step 4: Close the street, play, chat and eat cake!