- England
An evaluation of Play England's project Street Play has found that helping children play outside by closing streets for set time periods can help children increase their levels of physical activity. Children were outdoors for a large proportion (>70%) of the time the streets were closed and spent on average 16 minutes per hour in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per hour
during street closures. This can make a meaningful contribution
to whether children are likely to meet the 60 minute MVPA daily
target set out in the UK physical activity guidelines. The project enabled children to play outside in 33 geographically diverse areas, with over 5,000 volunteers creating over 60,000 additional play opportunities. Since the projects conclusion in March 2016, over 500 streets in 45 different local authority areas are involed in active street play.
