1My guest on the show today is Alice Riches
2who started the Street Play Scheme where she lives in Beechwood Road.
3For those of you that don't already know,
4Street Play involves local residents closing off their street for a few hours
5so that children have a chance to play in the street safely.
6She started it in her own street, Beechwood Road,
7and the idea caught on,
8and there are now Street Play Schemes all over the city.
9So when did you actually start the scheme, Alice?
10Well, I first had the idea when my oldest child was still a toddler,
11so that's about six years ago now,
12but it took at least two years of campaigning before we were actually able to make it happen.
13So the scheme's been up and running for three years now.
14We'd love to be able to close our road for longer,
15for the whole weekend, from Saturday morning until Sunday evening, for example.
16At the moment it's just once a week.
17But when we started it was only once a month.
18But we're working on it.
19So what actually happens when Beechwood Road is closed?
20We have volunteer wardens,
21mostly parents but some elderly residents too,
22who block off our road at either end.
23The council have provided special signs
24but there's always a volunteer there to explain what's happening to any motorists.
25Generally, they're fine about it,
26we've only had to get the police involved once or twice.
27Now I should explain that the road isn't completely closed to cars.
28But only residents' cars are allowed.
29If people really need to get in or out of Beechwood Road,
30it's not a problem,
31as long as they drive at under 20 kilometres per hour.
32But most people just decide not to use their cars during this time,
33or they park in another street.
34The wardens are only there to stop through traffic.
35So can anyone apply to get involved in Street Play?
36Absolutely!
37We want to include all kids in the city,
38especially those who live on busy roads.
39It's here that demand is greatest.
40Obviously, there isn't such demand in wealthier areas
41where the children have access to parks or large gardens,
42or in the suburbs where there are usually more places for children to play outside.
43I'd recommend that anyone listening who likes the idea should just give it a go.
44We've been surprised by the positive reaction of residents all over the city.
45And that's not just parents.
46There are always a few who complain but they're a tiny minority.
47On the whole everyone is very supportive
48and say they're very happy to see children out on the street,
49even if it does get quite noisy.
50There have been so many benefits of Street Play for the kids.
51Parents really like the fact that the kids are getting fresh air
52instead of sitting staring at a computer screen,
53even if they're not doing anything particularly energetic.
54And of course it's great that kids can play with their friends outside without being supervised by their parents,
55but for me the biggest advantage is that kids develop confidence in themselves to be outside without their parents.
56The other really fantastic thing is that children get to know the adults in the street,
57it's like having a big extended family.
58It certainly does have a lot of benefits.
59I want to move on now and ask you about a related project in King Street.
60Right.
61Well this was an experiment I was involved in
62where local residents decided to try and reduce the traffic along King Street,
63which is the busiest main road in our area,
64by persuading people not to use their cars for one day.
65We thought about making people pay more for parking,
66but we decided that would be really unpopular,
67so instead we just stopped people from parking on King Street
68but left the other car parks open.
69It was surprising how much of a difference all this made.
70As we'd predicted, air quality was significantly better
71but what I hadn't expected was how much quieter it would be,
72even with the buses still running.
73Of course everyone said they felt safer
74but we were actually amazed that sales in the shops went up considerably that day,
75we thought there'd be fewer people out shopping, not more.
76That's really interesting...