Not all streets are suitable for a Play Street. Bus routes, busy streets, and many through streets are inappropriate.

Anyone can organise a Play Street. They are often organised by a group of neighbours, a school, or a community group, e.g. Scouts. Whoever is leading the Play Street will need to apply through the Play Streets application form. 

Not yet, but they will be happy to hear from you. Contact our Play Lead to get play streets started in your neighbourhood.

Play Streets provides various benefits to those participating, whether you’re a parent or caregiver, neighbour or child. The positives go much further than fitness and fresh air.  

1. Play Streets evoke our creative side – getting us to reimagine how we use our streets during these events and how we can realise more play opportunities in our natural environment and everyday lives. 

2. The right to play – It’s every child’s right to play and enjoy the outdoors, which helps with their development. Street play gives children a space to be independent and explore their own ideas without direction from adults.   

3. An opportunity to connect with our community – Street play provides a perfect opportunity to get to know our neighbours, build trust and have a sense of connection through whakawhanaungatanga. 

4. An active New Zealand – Play Streets create a safe environment for children to play, make friends, learn new skills and explore. It’s not often we can turn a suburban street into a free-play area for a day that provides a great opportunity for kids to connect with their local areas. 

5. Supporting wellbeing – Play Streets are all about connection, getting moving, enjoying the environment and having fun – all elements that have a huge impact on our physical, social and mental wellbeing for both children and adults.    

To alleviate any concerns, ensure residents are reminded about the time and date of the Play Street so they can ensure their cars are put in their garages or parked further away from the Play Street.
Carefully consider the types of play activities being provided. For example, for street cricket use a tennis ball instead of a hard ball.

Emergency services will have access during a Play Street. A process will be in place for marshals to safely guide the emergency vehicle through the play area.Visitors or delivery people are recommended to walk into the street from outside the Play Street closure area. There will be some situations where they will be able to drive up, once play is cleared. 

While parents/caregivers are encouraged to give tamariki regular opportunities to play outside, including going to the park, we have seen in recent research:

• there is fear of young people going to the park alone
• younger children need adult supervision
• parents need to make the time to take tamariki to the park, and have conflicting priorities.

A Play Street not only promotes play, it also promotes neighbourhood connection and community resilience. It provides an opportunity for neighbours to meet each other, including people who may live alone, or those who are less likely to find it easy or suitable to play in a park.

For more on this, check out Playing Out.

It really shouldn’t be a major inconvenience as residents can still drive in and out during the session if they need to, just at walking speed to make it safe for everyone. For those not living on the street, it will usually only mean a tiny addition to journey times – we have no specific right to drive down a particular street. Most sessions only last an hour or two and take place before rush hour and at weekends. If you do have concerns, do talk to the organisers about them and hopefully you can reach a solution. You may well find it easier than normal to park on the street, since only residents will be allowed in and out during the sessions.

Yes. Stewards will ensure that all drivers wanting to drive down the road are aware that through traffic is not allowed but if a delivery needs to be made or someone is visiting, the steward will escort the driver at walking pace to their destination.

‘Playing Out UK’ research showed that young children can understand the difference between an event with a road closure and normal circumstance, through for example seeing road cones and adults wearing
high-vis vests.
A Play Street is an opportunity for parents to talk to children about road safety and the danger of traffic, and an opportunity for adults to take responsibility of driving behaviours on neighbourhood streets.

It is their choice to engage with Play Street. Councils may set a benchmark for how many residents need to support it before it can proceed (for example, 80%).
If a resident doesn’t want to engage in the Play Street, they could:

• stay inside at home
• make plans to be away for the duration of the Play Street
• still leave and come back to their street, understanding their car will be guided through the restriction area.
• move their car outside of the restriction area before the Play Street begins, so they can go about their business.