JERICHO ECHO ARTICLE
December 1981
On the inside pages of August's Jericho Echo a plea was made for play streets no fewer than three times. Despite the superficial attractions of the idea, play streets can create far more problems than they solve.
1. Closing streets off with bollards, as suggested, greatly increases traffic flow and parking in the other streets.
2. People in closed streets generally have to park their cars further away from their homes than at present.
3. Collections and deliveries to closed streets, such as furniture removals are difficult, and people would probably have to carry their dustbins to the end of the closed streets for refuse collection.
When the Council was hell-bent on street closures a few years ago, more pressure was placed on unclosed streets for parking than those streets could take. Consequently the Council was forced to propose large garage courts in the middle of our blocks of houses, in place of people's gardens. In other words, in order to have potted plants and trees in the streets, the plants and trees in people's gardens were threatened with destruction to make way for the cars thereby displaced. The solution surely lies on the playing field, in addition to the summer play scheme. Happily, youngsters of all ages now play there without being chased off and it would be a simple matter for the Church and the School to organise a rota of parents so that toddlers could be left there too. A list of 20 or 30 parents would mean that no-one would need to put in more than an hour or so each month. Yours faithfully,
Author: Nigel Hiscock