| My guest on the show today is Alice Riches |
| who started the Street Play Scheme where she lives in Beechwood Road. |
| For those of you that don't already know, |
| Street Play involves local residents closing off their street for a few hours |
| so that children have a chance to play in the street safely. |
| She started it in her own street, Beechwood Road, |
| and the idea caught on, |
| and there are now Street Play Schemes all over the city. |
| So when did you actually start the scheme, Alice? |
| Well, I first had the idea when my oldest child was still a toddler, |
| so that's about six years ago now, |
| but it took at least two years of campaigning before we were actually able to make it happen. |
| So the scheme's been up and running for three years now. |
| We'd love to be able to close our road for longer, |
| for the whole weekend, from Saturday morning until Sunday evening, for example. |
| At the moment it's just once a week. |
| But when we started it was only once a month. |
| But we're working on it. |
| So what actually happens when Beechwood Road is closed? |
| We have volunteer wardens, |
| mostly parents but some elderly residents too, |
| who block off our road at either end. |
| The council have provided special signs |
| but there's always a volunteer there to explain what's happening to any motorists. |
| Generally, they're fine about it, |
| we've only had to get the police involved once or twice. |
| Now I should explain that the road isn't completely closed to cars. |
| But only residents' cars are allowed. |
| If people really need to get in or out of Beechwood Road, |
| it's not a problem, |
| as long as they drive at under 20 kilometres per hour. |
| But most people just decide not to use their cars during this time, |
| or they park in another street. |
| The wardens are only there to stop through traffic. |
| So can anyone apply to get involved in Street Play? |
| Absolutely! |
| We want to include all kids in the city, |
| especially those who live on busy roads. |
| It's here that demand is greatest. |
| Obviously, there isn't such demand in wealthier areas |
| where the children have access to parks or large gardens, |
| or in the suburbs where there are usually more places for children to play outside. |
| I'd recommend that anyone listening who likes the idea should just give it a go. |
| We've been surprised by the positive reaction of residents all over the city. |
| And that's not just parents. |
| There are always a few who complain but they're a tiny minority. |
| On the whole everyone is very supportive |
| and say they're very happy to see children out on the street, |
| even if it does get quite noisy. |
| There have been so many benefits of Street Play for the kids. |
| Parents really like the fact that the kids are getting fresh air |
| instead of sitting staring at a computer screen, |
| even if they're not doing anything particularly energetic. |
| And of course it's great that kids can play with their friends outside without being supervised by their parents, |
| but for me the biggest advantage is that kids develop confidence in themselves to be outside without their parents. |
| The other really fantastic thing is that children get to know the adults in the street, |
| it's like having a big extended family. |
| It certainly does have a lot of benefits. |
| I want to move on now and ask you about a related project in King Street. |
| Right. |
| Well this was an experiment I was involved in |
| where local residents decided to try and reduce the traffic along King Street, |
| which is the busiest main road in our area, |
| by persuading people not to use their cars for one day. |
| We thought about making people pay more for parking, |
| but we decided that would be really unpopular, |
| so instead we just stopped people from parking on King Street |
| but left the other car parks open. |
| It was surprising how much of a difference all this made. |
| As we'd predicted, air quality was significantly better |
| but what I hadn't expected was how much quieter it would be, |
| even with the buses still running. |
| Of course everyone said they felt safer |
| but we were actually amazed that sales in the shops went up considerably that day, |
| we thought there'd be fewer people out shopping, not more. |
| That's really interesting... |