Roxwell Road 'play street' during November 2014
The sound of children’s laughter will return to a Shepherds’ Bush street which is pioneering a project to promote safe play in H&F.
The ‘play street’ event was first hosted in Roxwell Road last November and proved incredibly popular among residents. As part of the one-off event, the street was closed to traffic for an afternoon and children were able to play games including hopscotch, street football, hide and seek and made chalk drawings.
But now the street has been granted permission to host a play street on any Sunday that the residents want one, with the next planned for Sunday 5 July. H&F is now encouraging other residents to suggest streets where they could do the same.
“The pilot event in Roxwell Road was a massive success, not only for the children who made new friends while playing in a traffic-free environment, but it also brought the whole community together, with parents who’d never met before socialising and becoming friends, ” said Cllr Wesley Harcourt, H&F Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Residents Services.
“We really want to encourage these safer, inclusive and happier communities across our streets and would love residents to put forward ideas for more locations.”
At the previous event in Roxwell Road, the children played games including hopscotch, street football, hide and seek and made chalk drawings. There was also a bike doctor on hand to do minor repairs for the children and to talk to them about road safety.
Roxwell Road was granted a traffic order that permits residents to close the road for a limited time on Sunday afternoons, by putting up road closure signs at either end of the road. The previous traffic order allowed just one closure per year, so now residents will be able to organise and host unlimited events.
The play street is organised with the help of charity London Play, who can help advise communities how to establish a play street and how to apply for temporary play street orders.
For more information on play street events, visit the London Play website.
