2007: Our streets too!
The Playday 2007 Our streets too!campaign
highlighted the need for change, so that children, young people and
their families can feel confident about playing in streets and
areas near their homes all year round.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Playday 2007 was a big
success, with more events across the UK than ever before and
unprecedented media coverage. ‘Playday has helped highlight the
fundamental importance of play to childhood for the last 20 years,’
commented Gerry Sutcliffe, MP.
Playday 2007 research
Research commissioned to support the campaign revealed a
worrying decline in children’s use of public spaces near their
homes for play. The ICM opinion poll showed that 71% of adults
played outside in the street or area close to their homes every day
when they were children, compared to just 21% of children
today.
The research explored attitudes towards street play and also the
barriers to and beneficial effects of playing in a street
environment. It also looked for solutions so that together, we can
reclaim the streets for play!
Download Playday 2007 research
Playday 2007 events
Over 300 events celebrated Playday 2007. Just a few of the many
event highlights included:
- 10,000 children at the East London Playday extravaganza in
Hackney.
- Pavement art, bmx racing and lots more fun at Bristol's 10th
annual Playday.
- Children defied the floods and created a cardboard bowser in
the Gloucestershire Playday Scrap Challenge.
- The Kaiser Chiefs voiced their support for play as children
took to the main streets of Leeds and reclaimed the streets for
play.
- PlayBoard Northern Ireland organised The Big Skip, setting a
record for french skipping at their Playday event.
- The Cardiff Blues rugby team backed the Vale of Glamorgan
Council's Our streets too! campaign, highlighting the need
for drivers to slow down over the school holidays and beyond.
Find out how Playday 2007 was celebrated near you
Playday 2007 media highlights
Media highlights of the campaign included an hour's debate on
Radio Five Live, and features on the Today programme, Woman's Hour
and The One Show. The campaign was featured in the Guardian,
Observer, Telegraph and Times, and had wide-ranging regional press,
radio and television coverage.
Our streets too! - what next?
As a sign of the strength of the campaign research, Play England
received an invitation from the government to discuss the findings
further. Some of the campaign’s key asks were also included within
The Children’s Plan in December 2007. The government
pledged to work with local authority planners to create more child
friendly public spaces, implement more 20mph speed zones and
encourage the wider adoption of home zones.
DCSF launched Fair Play, the
consultation for a national play strategy in April 2008. Aims
outlined in the strategy include:
- In every residential area there is a variety of places for
play, free of charge, supervised and unsupervised
- Local neighbourhoods are, and feel like, safe, interesting
places to play
- Routes to children’s play spaces are safe and accessible for
all children and young people
- Children and young people have a clear stake in public space
and their play is accepted by their neighbours.
Fair play – have your say activity posters, part of the
children and young people's strand of the consultation, will be
distributed at Playday 2008 events. To have your say online, visit
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/fairplay