Let’s seize this moment for children’s outdoor play! FREE lunchtime webinar, Weds 3 Dec 12.30-1.30pm Hear from Cllrs @rezinachowdhury.bsky.social and @edwardlamb.bsky.social on the bolder actions councils can take to restore children's outdoor play. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/restoring-...

Lots of posts with comments about the proposed two-hour screen limit/curfew for children and young people are popping up in my timeline, all saying the same thing: Invest in places for C&YP to play and hang out in.

This is wonderful news! Exactly what we've been wanting to happen. Enormous gratitude to @edwardlamb.bsky.social and Wirral Council for leading the way for other councils to follow!!

If you live in Dublin and would like to organise a Play Street for your street / area for World Car Free Day, you can read all about the UK experience of how to do it informally here via @playingout.bsky.social: playingout.net/play-streets... #d7playstreets

Children have as much right to their streets as drivers. There is no legal basis for them being shoed off streets. And I have no doubt that cars - moving and parked - cause a nuisance for children. This is extraordinarily depressing from Manchester City Council. @playingout.bsky.social

Any organisation that exists to support children cannot remain silent in the face of this genocide. Our Government must end its complicity and take meaningful action against Israel *right now*. #StopKillingChildren

Last weekend in Bristol, children on bikes took over their city centre! They were seen and heard. They had a blast. But the aim of #KidicalMass is also serious. This is not the everyday norm. Children across the UK need #SafeStreetsNow. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLtA...

Off to the launch of the Play Commission final report this morning - will be absorbing the report and its recommendations on the train, but pleased to see strong arguments for child-friendly neighbourhoods. @playingout.bsky.social

Today is International Day of Play. As Ingrid Skeels - @playingout.bsky.social - says below: "we have to make the outside world a place children can play in real life." Instead of debating road "closures", we should be *opening* our streets so more children can play on the streets where they live.

I always saying opening a street for play is magical, often not spectacular, but the ordinary magic that Stuart Lester talks about. No wonder those who try it want more. www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...

Ladies Mile is a totally unnecessary road cutting across Bristol’s biggest public greenspace - The Downs - making it unsafe for kids. It was closed to cars for the day yesterday and what a change! Let’s make this permanent. @edplowden.bsky.social @robbryher.bsky.social @bristol247.bsky.social

On my way into work this morning I saw this, on a rare “home zone” in Bristol, where cars do not have priority. Imagine the time and energy this must have taken! Imagine the sense of belonging, of “my space, my street, my community”. Imagine if all children had this. @playingout.bsky.social

Bristol folk - join us for #KidicalMass 2025! A family-friendly city-centre protest ride calling for safer streets for children and everyone. Come on bikes, scooters, skateboards or roller-skates! Castle Park bandstand from 11am, Saturday 14th June. www.facebook.com/events/10929...

"...with the cost of inaction measured in children’s lives, politicians urgently need to wake up and act". @mumsforlungs.bsky.social @adfreecities.bsky.social @playingout.bsky.social @cleancitiescampaign.org #SUVAlliance www.suv-alliance.org.uk/blog/surging...

“No-one buying a car would want to put children at greater risk”. Surely. www.standard.co.uk/news/transpo... @olord.bsky.social #SUVAlliance

It’s not often you see MPs, one after another, standing up & calling for safe streets where children can 🚲🚶🏾🛴 🤸 without fear of being killed. Hats off to @ollyglover.bsky.social and all. #SafeStreetsNow @playingout.bsky.social parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

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Doing some planning for @playingout.bsky.social's next Play Streets Forum, where the focus will be on the campaign against "No Ball Games" signs, as part of the wider campaign for children's doorstep play, so a reminder of the petition - please sign and share: chng.it/B6nJ7XVKvn

Why don’t kids get off their phones and play in the streets like we did?

It’s Sunday! This might well be the most MASSIVE Kidical Mass London yet - join us! It is going to be amazing! Thank you so much @ibikelondon.bsky.social @mumsforlungs.bsky.social @cleancitiescampaign.org @zeroemissions.bsky.social and everyone else who has been sharing details of this ride!

5 years on, we need to remember how badly children were let down in the pandemic - and resolve to make it right. @playingout.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/posts/alice-...

As a former Lambeth resident, it’s great to see this campaign gaining momentum! 🏀⚽️ Removing 'No Ball Games' signs is an important step towards creating a child-friendly borough where every child can feel part of their community, stay active, enjoy playing with friends, and be happy!

"No Ball Games. No Freedom. No Hope....Not any more". (58sec film by Saatchi & Saatchi using their advertising power for good). #MoreBallGames #RightToPlay www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exxd...

“No Ball Games” signs make children unwelcome on their own doorstep, contributing to isolation and inactivity. It’s time for them to go. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Pavement life. When shared doorstep space was children’s everyday play space. @playingout.bsky.social

This is the exact opposite of what should be happening if we want children to be outside, moving, healthy and happy! We and allies will be strongly opposing this change.

Play - and children's urgent need for more of it - has had a lot of UK media coverage recently. This is VERY GOOD. It has also brought out some common misconceptions. So, in the interests of myth-busting, here are some responses to these...

Happy #IWD2025 - let’s create a world where all girls feel safe and free to be out and about in their streets and neighbourhoods!

Yes. Also convenient to blame smartphones for children’s loss of outdoor play, physical activity and social contact. We started @playingout.bsky.social as parents 17 years ago because these things were already being lost due to an increasingly child-hostile *outdoor* environment.

Friday is my non-work day so just settling down to read this with a coffee in the 🌞Amazing launch party last night brought together the worlds of architecture, planning, policy and play. 🙏 @dbornat.bsky.social for nod to @playingout.bsky.social & parent activists - and HUGE 🎉🎉🎉

We could have eliminated child poverty over the past 100 years but instead we eliminated the one amazingly beneficial thing that all children, rich or poor, had daily access to: outdoor play and freedom.

“Children are often overlooked by decision-makers”. This is important. If we truly care about children’s well-being, we must create environments where they can be safe, playful and mobile! @playingout.bsky.social 1/3

“We need to move beyond talking about play areas and towards talking about playful neighbourhoods. The best playgrounds are completely wasted if children can’t safely get to them”. Thank you @timrgill.bsky.social

He then added, “I grew up in poverty. The wonderful thing about playing outside is that it’s free”. Hear hear! @tomhayesmp.bsky.social

“We have an opportunity here to make a real difference. Restoring play to children’s lives is something Government can DO”. 👏👏👏@tomhayesmp.bsky.social

Impassioned speech from @ndironsmp.bsky.social opening the Play Commission launch, setting out the importance of play and the impact of its loss. “Is it any wonder children are so unhappy in this country?”

Lots of national media coverage about Play Commission today. Our Co-founder Ingrid on 5 Live and Leeds play street activator Catherine on the Today Programme alongside @annelongfield.bsky.social (link below - 2:48). Getting the word out!! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

We’re proud to be part of this important commission alongside @annelongfield.bsky.social & Paul Lindley OBE. Looking forward to launch in House of Commons later today.

The @cfyounglives.bsky.social Play Commission publishes its interim report today, making the case for more play in more spaces for all children and calling for a national play strategy and a play sufficiency duty. So good to see play on the agenda. www.centreforyounglives.org.uk/news-centre/...

Sick of car adverts that use nostalgia of childhood freedom to sell the vehicles that have stolen children’s freedom? This from @thewaroncars.bsky.social is the antidote! 👏👏👏 @playingout.bsky.social youtu.be/_0MVCyOjvtk

If only rats *were* the main problem. Much easier to deal with than cars. 🚗🚗🚗

Whilst parks are great, we have long argued for the importance of communal/shared *doorstep* space for children's everyday play - space which tends to be more 'grey' than 'green'. Great to now have this summary of the evidence from @alisonstenning.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Some good news!! Fingers crossed this will be spent well and make local streets that bit safer for children to get out and about. @chrisboardman.bsky.social @sustrans.bsky.social @livingstreets.bsky.social www.gov.uk/government/n...

Free webinar: How can we create a more child-friendly built environment? Thursday 13th Feb 10-12. Should be good! @timrgill.bsky.social @thetcpa.bsky.social www.tcpa.org.uk/event/child-...

Crazy that girls today are still (or again) having to battle such sexism and stereotyping. In similar vein, can we also recognise that many girls want to play sport/skateboard etc and not just have “places to sit”?! www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/2491486...

The #EastBristolLiveableNeighbourhood #EBLN has tamed Beaufort Road to the point that we’ve been able to restart our #PlayStreet @playingout.bsky.social ❤️❤️❤️

There is much to criticise about a “build, baby, build” approach, and @georgemonbiot.bsky.social does! But, as always, *children* will be the main losers of more thoughtless, profit-led house-building, both now and into the future. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Massive, polluting, and dangerous SUVs are becoming the norm in the UK. There's a better way. Today, we launch the SUV Alliance with a 5-point manifesto for safer and fairer streets without SUVs Manifesto 👉 suv-alliance.org.uk

For decades, we have placed responsibility for “road safety” onto children, teaching them that if they just follow the rules - like crossing on a green man - they will be safe. But then drivers….