Making space for play: Wayne Hemingway on safer space for young people

The design and use of public space to enable greater access by children and young people is now under unprecedented scrutiny. In the first half of 2008, a national play strategy will set out work across government to provide children with ‘better physical environments and to create more child-friendly public space’. Part of the challenge willbe renewing play space, but also identifying and overcoming barriers to children and young people’s access to the public realm and their independent mobility.

• This event that brought together a range of relevant professionals to focus on:
• addressing barriers to children and young people’s sustainable access to the public realm
• enabling everyday physical activity to benefit children’s health and tackle obesity
• translating The Children’s Plan into real action and practical delivery across transport, planning, public health, community, design and play sectors
• examining ‘child-friendliness’ as a bridging, place-shaping principle to deliver environmental, health and community benefits.

From an event sponsored by Play England, National Children's Bureau, sustrans and living streets