Manchester City Council this week announced that it is removing the application fee for Play Streets, which provide the opportunity to open up residential streets for use by people living in those communities.
The council’s website states that, “A group of residents can apply to [open] their road on a regular basis for a few hours each time so there is no danger or inconvenience from through traffic.”
🤸🏾♂️ 🚶🏻♀️🧑🏽🦽 🛴 I’m delighted that @ManCityCouncil have made it much easier for residents to turn their streets into people-friendly ‘playstreets’ by temporarily closing to cars. Application form for #Manchester residents is here. ✍️https://t.co/ocMsrc64P4. pic.twitter.com/yzLf728clt
— Eve Holt 😷 (@evefrancisholt) August 12, 2020
It is a way to meet your neighbours, improve the air quality, enable kids to play safely in the street, give people a chance to see what it would be like without speeding cars, and help to create a better, healthier way to live.
Osborne Road in Levenshulme benefited from becoming an Open Street for an afternoon last year. Residents who organised it said,
“It’s not an event. There’s no bunting. It’s not a street party… we want to be able to normalise regular residential roads for play”
Residents involved with Walk Ride Whalley Range have arranged three streets in their area to be among the first Play Streets under the new system, which is available for free to all Manchester City Council residents. The play streets are York Avenue, Blair Road, and Park Avenue, with dates scheduled for August and September. For more information, follow the Walk Ride Whalley Range page on Facebook.
The application takes up to 4 weeks to process via the Department for Transport.
Other Greater Manchester councils are expected to follow suit by removing the fee when residents apply for temporary Play Streets and similar schemes.
Play streets are one of a number of ways to help demonstrate the benefits of low traffic neighbourhoods. We have created a guide to highlight the current process to bring safer streets to your area, here.
Image of Guywood Lane, Romiley Open Street courtesy of TfGM.
2 replies on “Manchester Residents Encouraged to Apply for ‘Play Streets’ to Create Safer Neighbourhoods”
[…] City Council have recently announced steps to encourage people to hold play streets, including removing the application fee previously […]
[…] City Council have recently announced steps to encourage people to hold play streets, including removing the application fee previously […]