Enabling play streets in Leeds’ priority neighbourhoods: questions of social, spatial and environmental justice

The Leeds Play Streets Enablement project was established in 2021 to support the development of play streets in the city’s priority neighbourhoods, where poverty intersects with a range of other challenges, reflecting a growing recognition of the value of play streets for issues of social, spatial and environmental justice. The research reported on here reflects an analysis of a number of forms of data, generated by the involvement of all of the authorial team in the development, delivery and/or evaluation on the Play Streets Enablement Project. It concludes that the project was undoubtedly a success, notwithstanding the persistent and complex issues that mediated the development of the project. Children played, communities connected, and the project team learnt more about what works. However, as is also clear, many of the injustices experienced have their roots in scales much bigger than the street or neighbourhood itself, and we call for longer-term, policy and practice work focused on fighting social, spatial and environmental justice, putting in place strategies to enable children’s doorstep play without so much organisational and emotional labour within neighbourhoods.