16 February 2022
In the first of a series of webinars organised by the charity Playing Out, Kim Leadbeater MP talks about how play streets can help build more resilient communities.
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13 July 2021
Playing Out is one of more than 200 organisations in the UK that have come together to campaign for a Summer of Play to help children recover from a year when for long periods they were stuck indoors, unable to see their friends.
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24 August 2019
New government guidance issued this week will simplify the process for organising play streets. It will no longer be necessary for organisers to advertise the temporary road closures.
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22 April 2019
After two previous failed applications to Enfield Council, Warwick Road (in Bowes Ward) was finally granted permission to hold a monthly Play Street, and local residents enjoyed their first session on Sunday 14th April.
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22 March 2019
International academic journal Cities and Health has published a case-study of the grassroots street play movement, written by Playing Out co-founder Alice Ferguson. The paper sets out the importance of street play for children, the reasons for its decline and the arguments for restoring it as part of everyday life, as well as the recent history of play streets in the UK and beyond
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20 July 2018
Residents in selected London boroughs are being offered support and freebies to transform their streets into temporary play zones on London Car Free Day on 22 September.
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27 March 2017
Enfield Council has announced that it will be accepting new applications to set up a Play Street until 30th April. Successful applications will be licensed to operate from 1 August 2017 until 31 July 2018.
Advice on how to proceed is available from the following:
Enfield Council Traffic Dept (Lisa Boyden):
Catherine Nicholson, Palmers Green Play Quarter Project:
London Play website
Download the London Play Guide
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01 March 2017
Palmers Green's longest running Play Street was in the news again this week, though for the wrong reason. An ugly incident when a non-resident drove "at some speed" past barriers in Devonshire Road designed to protect children from cars was picked up in this week's Enfield Gazette. The aggressive driver even returned later and the police were called.
However, the organisers of the play street say that this is only the second time that anything similar has happened in the three years.......
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15 February 2017
This energetic little robot will soon be seen round and about Palmers Green, a symbol of kids unplugged from their parents and free to play out.
"Unplugged in N13" will be the logo helping children identify Safe Points where they will be able to obtain a free Unplugged in N13 badge, speak to a responsible adult if needed, and occasionally pick up a healthy snack.
Unplugged and Safe Points are among the first ideas that have emerged from meetings between Catherine Nicholson of London Play and.......
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30 November 2016
"Fun, Freedom and Play" is the motto for a pilot project aimed at giving back to children some of their lost freedom which launches this month in Palmers Green.
Palmers Green Play Quarter will run until May 2017 and its organisers are seeking help and advice from residents and business owners to make sure it gets off to a good start.
The charity behind the scheme, Play London, has appointed a part-time project worker, Catherine Nicholson, to get the ball rolling (both figuratively and.......
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18 October 2016
Palmers Green is to be the trailblazer for a project which will return to children some of the independence that has been taken away from them in recent years.
London's first Play Quarter will build on the existing Play Street schemes in and around Palmers Green - in Devonshire Road, Old Park Road, New River Crescent, Riverside, The Mall and Orpington Road. Those streets are now not only home to more active, happy children with new friends next door, but they have also become friendlier,.......
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24 March 2015
The concept of Play Streets is catching on in and around Palmers Green. People from fourteen streets in Palmers Green, Southgate and Winchmore Hill met at a meeting at Baskervilles last month to learn from the experience of Devonshire Road residents and find out how to go about making their own street a Play Street.
Play street in Devonshire Road (photo: Phil Rogers)So what does a Play Street involve? It means getting together with your neighbours and agreeing to close the street to.......
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18 December 2014
At 2pm on Sunday 7 December we closed Devonshire Road in Palmers Green to let the kids play out – for the seventh time this year. We received our Temporary Play Street Order from Enfield council back in June, and ever since we’ve been closing the road to through traffic for a couple of hours once a month on a Sunday afternoon. We are carrying on through the winter. Temperature doesn’t seem to matter to the children, who make the most of the closed road to scoot, cycle, play ball games and.......
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19 May 2014
Residents of a Palmers Green street are closing their road to traffic one Sunday a month to let their children play outdoors.
Drivers tend to use Devonshire Road as a rat run to avoid the traffic lights on the high street, but on the afternoon of Sunday 1st June, barriers will be placed at both ends and supervised by volunteer stewards. Only residents’ cars will be allowed in and out – at walking pace – and children will have the freedom play in the road as they choose.
This.......
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