2007: Our streets too

The Playday 2007 Our streets too! campaign highlighted the need for change, so that children, young people and their families could feel confident about playing in streets and areas near their homes all year round.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Playday 2007 was a big success, with more events across the UK than ever before and unprecedented media coverage.

Over 300 events celebrated Playday 2007. Just a few of the many event highlights included:

  • 10,000 children at the East London Playday extravaganza in Hackney.
  • Pavement art, bmx racing and lots more fun at Bristol’s tenth annual Playday.
  • Children defying floods to create a cardboard Bowser in the Gloucestershire Playday Scrap Challenge.
  • The Kaiser Chiefs voicing their support for play as children reclaimed the streets of Leeds for play.
  • children setting a record for french skipping at their PlayBoard Northern Ireland’s The Big Skip Playday event.
  • The Cardiff Blues rugby team backing the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Our streets too! campaign, highlighting the need for drivers to slow down over the school holidays and beyond.

Media highlights of the campaign included an hour’s debate on Radio Five Live, and features on the Today programme, Woman’s Hour and The One Show. The campaign was featured in the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph and Times, and had wide-ranging regional press, radio and television coverage.

Playday 2007 research

Research commissioned to support the campaign revealed a worrying decline in children’s use of public spaces near their homes for play. The ICM opinion poll showed that 71% of adults played outside in the street or area close to their homes every day when they were children, compared to just 21% of children today.

The research explored attitudes towards street play and also the barriers to and beneficial effects of playing in a street environment. It also looked for solutions so that together, we can reclaim the streets for play!

Click here for all the Playday 2007 research