Making towns child friendly

The places and spaces where children grow up can have a significant impact on their health, development and future outcomes. In recent years there has been increased focus on designing towns, cities – and developments in or on the edge of rural areas – with the needs of children, young people and families in mind.

Child-friendly town planning is about much more than providing playgrounds, says Tim Gill, author of Urban Playground: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design Can Save Cities. “The focus is on the whole of the public realm, not just creating reservations and saying this is where children belong and they don’t belong anywhere else,” he says.

Children need a diverse range of places to play, including streets, says Professor Peter Kraftl, chair in human geography at the University of Birmingham. “This is not just about design but also about how we treat children in those spaces, taking down signs that say ‘No Ball Games’ for example.”

Air quality, play areas, public transport, roads and paths, public spaces, the types of food shops in an area, housing – all are interlinked aspects of child-friendly town planning. “It is important to take a holistic approach,” says Professor Aude Bicquelet-Lock, deputy head of policy and research at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). “If we address one issue and not the others, nothing is going to change.”

Making it easier for children to get around by slowing traffic, improving walking and cycling networks, and locating shops and services in easy reach not only benefits their physical and mental health, but encourages independence, an important part of child development. The Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Urban95 initiative asks planners to consider what they would do differently if they could experience the city from the perspective of a three-year-old. Walkable neighbourhoods that cater for the needs of a young family are a priority, with public spaces that allow small children to explore safely and streets that can be navigated by small legs or carers pushing buggies.

Children with disabilities are often still excluded from playgrounds, let alone informal play opportunities. Girls are not always well-served when it comes to outdoor spaces, and young men from ethnic minorities are disproportionately targeted by policies excluding them from public spaces. Children from poorer families tend to make more use of public space, so are disproportionately affected if opportunities for safe play and movement are limited.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of local facilities and especially outdoor play spaces. “Anyone who might have thought that it doesn’t matter if children can’t play out will have been disabused by the profound effects on wellbeing,” says Gill.

In 2021 the RTPI commissioned a review of child-friendly town planning policies in the UK. It found children were rarely mentioned in any UK national planning policy, beyond narrow needs for play and recreation. “There are still a lot of improvements to be made, but issues around children and planning are increasingly coming to the attention of councils,” says Bicquelet-Lock.

Gill agrees that things are changing – just not fast enough. “The tide is shifting but children are still at the back of the queue,” he says. “We have given far too much space and put too much focus on the needs of cars and drivers and nowhere near enough on the needs and wishes of children.” However, there are tensions between the need for a healthy environment that discourages cars, and the need for an inclusive environment that gives equal access to those with disabilities, says Bicquelet-Lock.

The responsibility for planning child-friendly spaces ultimately lies with political leaders says Gill, citing government agency Active Travel England, responsible for improving the cycling and walking infrastructure and funding projects that improve health and air quality. However, a whole range of professions have a role to play at a local level including local authority planners, developers and architects. Those working with children also have a role in ensuring a diverse range of young people have an input into planning decisions.

In Milton Keynes, for example, the design of a £35m town centre regeneration scheme was inspired in part by children who took part in a consultation using the computer game Minecraft. Children’s ideas that were incorporated into the design included pedestrian-friendly streets, community-focused public spaces, and gardens with space for growing food and relaxation. “Focusing on the simple things like safe, green and sociable streets where kids can draw with chalk and roller blade doesn’t need to cost a lot,” says developer Town in a statement.

The RTPI would also like to see children’s services including health and education working together and with local planners to share expertise on children’s developmental needs but this is not happening to the extent that it should, says Bicquelet-Lock.

For Tim Gill seeing children of different ages being active and visible in public spaces is an indicator of a healthy community.

There are multiple benefits for planners who take a child-friendly approach, adds Peter Kraftl. “We often argue that if you can build better places for children and young people, you generally build better places for everyone,” he concludes.

IMPACT ON CHILDREN’S WELLBEING WHAT RESEARCH TELLS US

MENTAL HEALTH

Study by: University College London, August 2022

What was done? Researchers explored the association between the mental health of 4,454 three-to 11-year-olds in England and the state of their neighbourhood, using data from a long-term study.

Key findings: Children living in areas that did not feel safe, comfortable or friendly, had high volumes of traffic and no traffic calming methods, and issues such as litter and graffiti, were more likely to develop emotional and conduct problems early in childhood.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Study by: The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, September 2018

What was done? Researchers placed signs to encourage playful learning and parent-child interactions in supermarkets in deprived and affluent areas.

Key findings: There was a 33 per cent rise in interactions between carers and children in the more deprived areas, with adults using more descriptive language and children asking more questions.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Study by: University of Valencia, December 2021

What was done? Researchers tracked the movements of 83 six- to 12-year-olds using wearable devices to find out whether the proximity of local parks affected physical activity levels.

Key findings: Children in areas with a greater number of playgrounds spent 35 more minutes a day engaged in physical activity than those in areas with the least number of playgrounds. Children who lived furthest from a playground spent 14 fewer minutes a day engaged in physical activity than those living nearest.

BARNET IMPROVING ACCESS TO PLAY ACTIVITIES

By 2025, Barnet is projected to have 100,000 children and young people. Barnet Council worked with consulting firm Arup, Unicef UK, the Real Play Coalition and the Royal Town Planning Institute to increase the opportunities for quality play in the Burnt Oak area, using the Playful Cities Toolkit. Research included mapping walks around the area, interviews with stakeholders and workshops with children.

On the surface it seemed Burnt Oak offered children a play-friendly environment – schools and nurseries were good at offering play opportunities, there was a wide array of dedicated play spaces and a range of options for organised play. However, families were often unable to access these spaces and opportunities due to fears about antisocial behaviour and the safety of children playing outside on their own, and the cost of activities provided. A culture of “quiet streets”, with widespread No Ball Games signs, further discouraged outdoor play.

Arup made a number of recommendations to create a more play-friendly environment, including using augmented reality initiatives that bridge the gap between digital play and the outside world – along the lines of the game Pokemon Go – and making it easier for pedestrians to access play areas through better paving, lighting and wider streets.

The consultancy also called for play opportunities to be embedded in Burnt Oak’s transport network. This could include visual activities for children, play coaching for parents, and digital links to further resources in stations and on vehicles, small child-friendly areas next to bus stops with counting or letter games moulded into colourful vandalism-proof concrete shapes, or a rest area for parents in a rail station with a variety of surfaces for children to explore nearby.

CAMBRIDGE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT ENCOURAGES SOCIAL INTERACTION

Marmalade Lane is a 42-home development in Orchard Park, north Cambridge, based on Scandinavian co-housing principles that encourage social interaction and aim to build a strong sense of community. Future residents helped design the development which includes a “common house” with a shared kitchen, laundry, playroom, meeting rooms and guest accommodation. This encourages children to play and interact with each other.

Giving children opportunities for outdoor play is a key feature of the Marmalade Lane design. A large, shared garden was designed to preserve existing natural features including a hedgerow and mature oak tree. Children who live in the development have their own area for gardening and a multi-purpose play space. Houses are arranged in a terrace, looking onto the shared street or the shared garden, and private gardens are not fenced, which encourages children to play together and means children playing in the street can be seen easily. “Marmalade Lane creates a safe urban environment which is wild and inviting and where children can explore and play,” says Jonny Anstead, founding director of developer Town.

The development is mostly car-free – vehicles can only access the road from which the development takes its name to make drop-offs, with a single car parking area to the east of the site. This not only makes Marmalade Lane a safe place for outdoor play and socialising, and reduces pollution, but also opens up space that would have been used for car parking. Twelve per cent of the development is devoted to cars, compared with 38 per cent of the next-door development. “The main street is taken over by children rather than by cars,” says Meredith Bowles, director at Mole Architects which was involved in the design of the development. The site is not gated, so young children have had to be helped to understand its boundaries, but the ability to roam the area promotes independence from an early age.

“The absence of cars from the shared lane means children can go up and down on scooters and do chalk drawings as well as using the shared garden,” says Anstead. “If you create an environment that is good for children it has lots of side benefits for others such as the less able.”

LIVERPOOL YOUNG PEOPLE’S VIEWS INFORM PLANNING PROCESS

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRA) is keen to get young people involved right from the beginning of the planning process, so their priorities can be embedded into plans from the start.

The combined authority worked with education and engagement social enterprise Placed to engage young people through a range of initiatives including pop-up events, school workshops and online activities. Placed runs the Placed Academy for 14- to 19-year-olds who are interested in a career in design or the built environment and in 2019 the academy programme brought 50 young people together to discuss potential changes to the area’s environment.

“We spent four days gathering data from questions and through more creative tasks such as building models,” says Placed founder and director Jo Harrop. “Young people often talk about feeling trapped in the neighbourhood because they can’t afford the bus fare or pushed out of the town centre because unless they can spend money there is nowhere to go.”

Two more cohorts fed into the planning process as it developed, with the academy taking place online during Covid. Younger children were engaged through online workshops. “Not all of their ideas will be feasible but they challenge us to say why something is not possible,” says Harrop.

Climate change was the main concern for young people and this had a significant impact on LCRA’s thinking, says lead spatial planning officer Mark Dickens. “We have five objectives and the first is addressing climate change,” he says. “The fact it is number one was strongly influenced by the initial engagement with young people.”

Harrop agrees consulting with young people had a clear impact on policy. “We can see this has helped shape policies around travel and sustainability, with issues like feeling safe walking or cycling now threaded throughout policy documents,” she says. “Because young people expressed their views so strongly it allowed the LCRA to push it as an issue, even though in wider engagement we were hearing more about housing and health.”

TEN TIPS HOW TO PLAN SPACES FOR CHILDREN

1. Kneel down outside to get a toddler’s eye view of the world. Try carrying a 10-kilogram bag of rice around, or pushing it in a buggy, to give a sense of how hard journeys can be for a parent or carer with a baby.

2. Engage children and young people in planning with innovative consultation activities such as model-making. Projects often take a long time to come to fruition, so try to incorporate some immediate changes so children can see the impact of their suggestions.

3. Any place where children linger with their parents, from a supermarket to a bus stop, can be a place of play and learning. Incorporate features that encourage exploration, such as a tactile surface or pattern of tiles, or signs, puzzles and games that encourage interaction between child and carer.

4. Build housing developments with plenty of shared, car-free outside space, with direct or easy access from homes, including clear lines of sight to children playing outside.

5. Everyday services such as schools, shops, health services and play areas, should be located at safe, walkable, distances from homes.

6. Children experience reduced stress and better physical and mental development when they have regular access to nature. Provide free access at a variety of scales, from doorstep greenspace through street trees and pocket parks to larger play areas and sports fields.

7. Responsibility for ongoing management and maintenance of public spaces such as playgrounds must be established at the design and build stage as poor maintenance will discourage use.

8. Consider closing the roads around schools to traffic at pick-up and drop-off times. This approach can reduce polluting nitrogen dioxide levels by up to 23 per cent.

9. Make sure there are outdoor places where teenage girls can hang out and feel safe and comfortable. Playgrounds are often designed for younger children, and skate parks and multi-use games areas are predominantly used by teenage boys.

10. Toddlers need double the amount of time to cross streets compared to able-bodied adults so bear this in mind when designing crossings and streetscapes in general.

*Compiled with help from the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Urban95 initiative