Memorandum by the Children's Play Council
(UWP 72)
PROPOSED URBAN WHITE PAPER
1. The Children's Play Council is a strategic
alliance of voluntary organisations and local authorities whose
aim is to raise awareness of the importance of play in children's
lives and the need for all children to have access to better play
opportunities and play services. In August 1999 we were invited
by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to develop a policy
and research programme on play, to be funded by the Department
from April 2000.
2. We have been strongly associated with
the home zone concept for some years, and were pleased that the
Urban Task Force report included support for home zones as one
of its main recommendations. Like us, the Task Force felt that
the creation of residential streets where pedestrians are given
priority and cars move at little more than walking pace could
be a major tool in making neighbourhoods attractive places to
live. The report calls for "legislation enabling residents
to have their neighbourhood designated a `Home Zone'".
3. As the Committee may know, in the wake
of the Transport White Paper the Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions (DETR) has initiated a pilot programme
of home zones. We welcome this pilot programme, but we have some
serious reservations about it. The problem is that it is being
taken forward without supporting legislation. This raises two
related issues. First, it is not possible for local authorities
to set up the pedestrian priority that is so central to the concept
(and is a key feature in continental home zones). Secondly, because
the home zone concept remains undefined in law, it is proving
difficult for local authorities to "brand" them with
residents.
4. DETR argues that the programme is in
part designed to test the need for new legislation. It is difficult
to see how a series of pilots, none of which has legal priority
for pedestrians, could help answer the question as to whether
new laws are needed, for the simple reason that there is no basis
for making useful comparisons. In any case we would argue that
the case has already been made, on the basis of the massive support
for home zones across a wide range of professional disciplines
and amongst the public.
5. Hence we would urge the Committee to
support the Urban Task Force's recommendation, and to press the
Government to make a clear commitment in the Urban White Paper
to bring forward primary legislation on home zones as soon as
practicable.
Tim Gill
Director
January 2000
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