Monday 4 June 2012

Closing Our Street For Play On The Jubilee

Playing out. It is something that perhaps people of my generation have taken for granted.

That when we were young, we were allowed to play in the street, because the streets were so much less dangerous, and there was so much less traffic.

Much has changed in the name of progress.

These days, the car takes precedence over so many things.

In some respects, of course, this is a measure of the extent to which we have progressed, and become able to travel more widely and more easily.

But there are negatives, perhaps many of them less visible than we imagine.

Something as simple as the way in which, as a child. I can remember playing in the street, and all of those childhood memories, which perhaps have been lost to the current generation of children.

But yesterday, just for a short time, we were given permission by the local Council to close our street to through traffic, and for a brief period, the children of residents and neighbours were free to play safely in the street, and the 30 or so houses within the zone to which the closure applied, got to meet neighbours they had in so many cases never even seen.

Suddenly, neighbours sat drinking tea with strangers they had so much in common with, perhaps many of them all of the time keeping a wary eye on their children playing happily and safely in the street. For once devoid of traffic, the Sound of play piercing suddenly the constant veil of traffic noise. I had heard birdsong that morning, because coincidentally it was the last day of term, and there were no longer thousands of parents driving their children to school. It was to get better, as our ears adjusted.

The road became quickly covered in chalk markings for games that so many of us would remember and recognize from our own childhood.

Perhaps because I had seen the benefits of street closures before, when I lived on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, I jumped at the chance of getting involved in this one. I offered my resources to the resourceful person prepared to lead the way, glad  to have been involved in a small way in making arrangements for this closure. I have available to me a large format printer. From the days when I last worked. as a graphic designer from home, when I purchased a printer that can print in full colour up to A1 in size.

With this, I was able to print the paper necessary to make the signs for the closure, as well as the logo of the new breed of not-for-profit companies with social intent, Playing Out. That exists to promote this simple act of Playing Out.

There is no doubt in my mind that this brief period in which everybody's ordinary isolation was shattered will have a lasting effect, and perhaps the ripples of this transformation will last for as long as the friendships made in this brief moment of peace will consolidate and bloom.

It is as if Pandora's Box has been opened, but with positive outcomes that no one can predict.

It is perhaps significant that this has happened on the Friday before the Jubilee, when we have two Bank Holidays during which we will celebrate and honour the Queen that has reigned over us for 60 years, and perhaps this has made it easier for local Politicians to have allowed this simple, innocent act of transgression to take place.

It has been thoroughly well organised, with local residents taking on responsibility for stewarding the closure, and advising drivers of ways in which they can gain access safely, complete their journey, and perhaps communicating politely exactly what is going on.

The costs have been minimal, perhaps mainly because local people had given their time to help with preparations and assuring the smooth transformation of our street to a temporary playground.

But now it has happened, and people have seen that what they have taken for granted need not always have its impact on us.

A local Councillor was present, to observe how quickly the traffic returned to this brief haven. He shared with us the surprise that comes with a realisation of something that has grown so insidiously that we have failed to see it.

That our lives have been ruled by traffic, though for the briefest of moments, it is as if the tide has been turned, by act of will, and what has been revealed is a treasure whose value will only be realised over time.

1 comment:

  1. Well said. I use a car, very occasionally, but I secretly fantasise about what Worthing would be like if there were no cars within the town boundaries.
    Everyone would either walk, or cycle, or catch a rickshaw. In the summer there would be lots of bronzed young people earning university money as the engines for cycle drawn lorries. The air would be free of car exhaust fumes, the birds would be the loudest constant, save for the odd bell warning people of an approaching cycle, the streets full of kids on skateboards, roller blades and roller skates, scooters, trikes, pedalcars and bikes.

    And plenty of skinned knees, no doubt. That kind of danger I can live with.

    ReplyDelete