PLAYTIME could be brought back onto the streets for children in Barnet if plans are approved at a meeting tomorrow.
The Friends of Hollickwood School hope Barnet Council will give them £1,350 to close off five streets in Coppetts, allowing children to play freely.
If successful, Alexandra Road, Aylmer Road, MacDonald Road, Newton Road and Pankhurst Road could be shut for four hours at a time and turned over to children.
Barry Rawlings, councillor for Coppetts and leader of the opposition, has expressed his support for the project.
He said: “The project provides children with an opportunity to enjoy real, traditional playtime on streets that would completely belong to them.
“It would be very refreshing to see a street where children are the priority, not cars.
“There’s a real chance to forge new relationships within the community and, if it goes well, the benefits could spread over the whole borough.”
The Street Play project ran in Barnet in 2015 but after it lost funding from London Play, it had to be stopped.
The £1,350 will go towards paying qualified supervisors, insurance and publicity.
Recalling the successful attempt last year, Cllr Rawlings said: “It created a mind set in neighbourhood communities which put play and learning first, with children and adults alike finally getting to know people that they’d always walked past on the street.
“We’ve got long summers here and we need to create spaces to encourage children to go outside and enjoy themselves in the sunshine.
“It’s not a big initiative like a festival, carnival or a circus, we’re only after a small amount of money and it could really make a huge difference to the mood and wellbeing of the community.”
The initiative, started by Play England with the support of the Department of Health, is a collaboration between London Play, Play Out and the University of Bristol.
Their aim, according to the proposal, is to directly support communities and local authorities across the country, particularly in disadvantaged areas, to reactivate a culture of children playing out in the streets near where they live and embed this in local policy.
The Friends’ application, which has been sponsored by Cllr Andreas Ioannidis. will be discussed by the Chipping Barnet Area Committee at their meeting tomorrow evening (Wednesday, March 30).
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