A PlayStreet is a 2-3 hour stewarded road closure for children to play out safely in the street once a month. PlayStreets provide a great chance to bring a real sense of community spirit to the whole street, creating a space for children to play, turning temporarily closed roads into a safe, imaginative place for kids to get out and enjoy. Everyone is welcome to come and join in – bring a cup of tea and enjoy socialising with your neighbours while the children play.

Is your road suitable?

PlayStreets can only be hosted on residential streets – a main road, a road that has a bus route or one with a high daily traffic flow cannot be partially closed.

To check whether your street is suitable, please email playstreets@ealing.gov.uk who will confirm whether your road can be closed.

Applying to set up a PlayStreet

PlayStreets are resident led, which means that Ealing Council will support and guide you through setting up a PlayStreet as much as we can – but ultimately it will be driven by you!

The first step is to email the council at playstreets@ealing.gov.uk, whom after confirming whether your road can be closed will send you out an information pack.

The information pack will include:

• An introductory letter to distribute to each of your neighbours, including a link to an online survey set up for your street;
• A signature collection survey/form to collect signatures as you knock on doors delivering the letters; and,
• A keep in touch form allowing residents to put their email address and phone numbers down – something that can be used to establish a road/community social media group allowing those that are interested to follow your road’s PlayStreet journey.

To be allowed to close off your street, you will need to get your neighbours on board with the idea through conducting letter drops and knocking on doors trying to gain support – the consultation period for this will last 3 weeks.

If the response is in favour of a PlayStreet (one response per household/address) the Council will then apply for a Temporary Traffic Order on your behalf (this takes six to eight weeks and is permanent once in place).

If there are no objections to the Temporary Traffic Order, the Council will then send you a free PlayStreet kit. This will contain everything you need, from lamppost signage, to tips and advice on how to run a successful PlayStreet but minus the tea and biscuits!