CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I would def chip in for a few hours PARking on George St.
Roll of astroturf, a parasol or two and a bag of chips.
I can bring a token toddler, but we'd need proper fencing to keep her in the bay - white line will not stop her.
Need to work out which day summer falls on this year.
Parking Day is officially the third Friday in September (which has as good a chance as being summer as any other day in Scotland, frankly)
"
Lucy Richardson, of community group Edinburgh Playing Out, said the talks had proved “extremely helpful” and that nearly all of the group’s recommendations had been taken.
These include a simpler application form, more information online and a new system for approval from neighbours involving letter distribution rather than gathering signatures.
She said: “The key officers and councillors have been fantastic. They have just made it an awful lot clearer.
"
Currently on Radio4.
After some delays we finally managed to have our first Playing Out session yesterday afternoon. The sun stayed out and the children who came had a great time playing together and making new friends.
The grown ups enjoyed themselves almost as much and it was a great way to break the ice and get to know neighbours who you hadn't chatted to before.
The Edinburgh pilot ends on the 31 August and you are supposed to give the council 6 weeks notice so I'm not sure there is time to start the process this year but I would highly recommend it for next year. It was a very relaxed and pleasant way to spend the afternoon!
Interesting
I had thought about this for Harrison Gardens as there are plenty of detour routes around to avoid hassle. Will email our Green councillor about getting it widely adverstised before I go into applications.
@spytfyre. The instructions for this years pilot are here
Basically we chatted to a number of neighbours we were already friendly with to gauge the appetite for it and discuss the logistics. If you are not sure about anything, for example, where to close the road, then email your local roads team (at the email provided) and they are happy to chat to you.
Between us we then proposed a date and edited the letter they provided on the site and put it through the other neighbours doors and tried to chat to as many other neighbours as possible.
We gave it a couple of weeks to give folk the opportunity to come back with any issues or concerns they had, then we put in the application to the council.
After a couple of weeks we got confirmation from the council that our application had been successful and then did another round of letters confirming the date and time.
The barriers should magically arrive in time for the start of the event (ours didn't but we just parked a couple of cars and used a couple of wheely bins) and the neighbours and children just started to appear.
We had actually first talked about doing this in 2015, and did put something around our neighbours doors at the time.
Last year didn't work as the process was not made easy by the councils processes.
This year we planned to have an earlier session in June (and had originally put an earlier letter around folks doors with the proposed June date) but that got put back as we were too busy.
Despite all this, we still had a neighbour who complained to the council that we hadn't given them much notice!
Playing Out was on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning too. A conversation I had later in the day went along these lines:
AN Other: 'I think it's ridiculous. Streets aren't for playing in; they're for people to get from A to B.'
Me: 'No, streets are also where people live. They're not just dumping grounds for cars.'
ANO: 'We had our street party last month. I think it's a stupid idea, closing roads to traffic. People have to get to work. We never played in the street.'
Me: 'You had fields to play in.'
ANO: 'Precisely.'
Me: 'What? There weren't the same numbers of cars back then either.'
ANO: 'Well now there are. You can't just close streets for children to play in. People need to use them.'
Me: 'They can go around, there are plenty of alternatives.'
ANO: 'No there aren't! You can't go closing rat runs, they're what you need to reduce traffic jams. All you're doing is making people's journeys longer. They keep shutting off more and more roads so that you can't drive across town anymore.'
Me: 'You do know that roads just attract drivers. If you build more roads people will want to use them, and then more people will want to use them.'
ANO: 'It's no wonder, the Council seems to want to shut every single road against car drivers.'
I could have carried on with my exercise in futility but I had things to do.
@arellcat Yes, indeed!.
We condensed the key information as to why Playing Out is good for both the children and the community. We also provided a list of the main concerns/questions that people tend to have along with real life experiences from other such events elsewhere, to try and allay any fears.
In addition to them feeling that we hadn't given them enough notice, the complaint itself mentioned a handful of incidents which have occurred in the street recently: damage to a car, someone throwing eggs at a car and someone throwing stones at windows. These all happened in the early hours and are unrelated to the children who live in the street, being allowed to play in the street for a couple of hours.
The letter also suggested that the event would be overrun by hoards of children from a nearby council estate. Presumably these other children are to blame for the above incidents.
If my spider senses are correct, this neighbour was one of those who was keen to build a wall between said council estate and themselves a few years ago.
Perhaps if the wall had been built it would provide a more fruitful experience for everyone that having a conversation like Arellcat's. It sounded rather less productive than banging your head off a brick wall.
Good article here https://rethinkingchildhood.com/2017/08/02/reports-street-play-key-sustainable-livable-cities/amp/
@davidsondave, maybe the silver knowes wall builder was not allowed to play in the street as a child?
I tend to read complaints which focus on shortness of consultation as We know this is a good idea but we don't like it so we are going to object to some other things so we can be a nuisance.
From my own experiences on my street and through talking to others in Edinburgh Playing Out, the casual objections to closing a street for a few hours run from the sublime to the ridiculous:
"Why not take the kids to a park?"
"It teaches children bad road sense - they should be frightened to be on a road, not told they can play on it"
And my personal favourite:
"Nobody around here wants this" (despite being surrounded by 30 adults and children having a great time)
Also, as the pilot is ending soon, we (Edinburgh Playing Out) are looking for feedback on any street closures. A report to Committee is expected and we'd like to contribute and press for a continuation of free street closures for Playing Out and community get-togethers.
As of 20 July, 25 streets and 46 dates were approved by City of Edinburgh Council.
If you have closed your street, please let us know:
Streetname < >
Playing Out Dates < >
Rough Attendance < >
Activities - did you do more than close the street ? < >
Feedback on:
1 - application process eg ease of form completion, Council's helpfulness, communication, speed of response, dropping off road closure equipment etc
2 - any problems? eg objectors, lack of road closure equipment
3 - how it went on the day
4 - your comments and feedback from others
5 - photos
PLEASE EMAIL TO edinburghplayingout@gmail.com
My sister and sprogs took part in one near the primary school on Ashley terrace. They said they very much enjoyed themselves. I believe that my nieces were involved in a cake stand and raised £100 for the sick kids hospital which is great!
Things are finally moving on the Edinburgh Playing Out front with a report going to the Transport committee this Thursday. The report is overwhelmingly positive and recommends rolling it out as council policy at no cost to residents.
The report is available from the council website: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/57065/item_714_-_edinburgh_playing_out_pilot_evaluation
I'd be interested in any feedback or comments about the report from CCE wise heads. It looks pretty good to me, though I believe there are ways to streamline the process and the budget.
We got good coverage today on BBC Edinburgh website, the Edinburgh Evening News and STV 6 o'clock news, who thankfully managed to get my name wrong so I can slip back into incognito mode.
How do you mispronounce weezee...
The Z is one of those Scottish Zs, like in Menzies?
Update: report passed unanimously, thanks to deployment of 7-year old doing his best 'I'm a quiet little mouse, really' impression while presenting his views on playing out to the committee. The finer details are yet to be worked out but applying for playing out should be possible from this summer onwards.
A special mention for where this all began: I heard a speaker on playing out during the women's cycle forum nearly 3 years ago. Yes, it really takes that long...
Great work Weezee. Perseverance pays off.
Well done weezee. Read the piece on BBC website, all positive
I really can't take the credit here, there was a small group of us. With some of very persistent members. We had a very specific goal, which helped. But it really did seem like it would never happen.
We had a very pleasant Playing Out session on Sunday. I also heard that they had one recently on the nearby Silverknowes Drive, which forms part of NCN1, at which a cyclist got rather sweary when they were asked to slow down.
We are having another one on Silverknowes Drive this weekend. Shall see if there’s any grief this time.
@himupstairs Your Playing Out session seems to have been a lot more exciting that ours was.
The neighbour who actually took the time to complain to the council before last years session, leaves the street when they take place and we seem to be winning over some of the doubters with coffee, cake, beer and barbecues. If legend is to be believed, your neighbour is a bit more tricky!
Great photos
Stank lifters
Wee kid in her dad’s huge shoes
All fab
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