Young lives
Hall Street in Ordsall, and the following year the scheme expanded to include another 22 in Seedley.
John Cook, who lived in Bridson Street – a designated play street – in the 1940s recalled: “Children played hopscotch on chalked flags, occasionally football with coats as goalposts unless disturbed by an offending car.
“If the gable end of a house was not used for cricket, a lamp post would be.”
In a report to Salford’s watch committee, Major Godfrey said: “In a congested and industrial area such as Salford, the smaller streets are utilised as playgrounds by the children.
“Statistics show that a large percentage of accidents are due to children running into the roadway in front of motor vehicles whilst playing in the street near their home.
“I am of the opinion that quite a number of minor streets are not necessary for motor traffic and could be closed to this class of vehicle without inconvenience.
“Apart from milk floats, bread vans, and greengrocers’ carts, no business vehicles have any occasion to use such streets. I consider that if they were closed to motor traffic there would be a resultant diminution in the number of accidents.”
Speaking to the National Safety First Congress in Leeds in May 1931, Major Godfrey eloquently put the case for more play streets.
He said playing in the street was ‘the only opportunity of getting away from the stuffy atmosphere of crowded houses into such pure air as an industrial city affords. It is their only chance to exercise their little limbs and muscles. I grant you that gardens and open spaces are much to be preferred... but we are dealing with conditions as they actually exist in Salford.’
Within six years Salford had 200 play streets. The pilot was so successful that they were passed into English law and 700 were created across England and Wales by the 1950s.
But by the 1980s they were all but forgotten.
In 2001, however, Salford, with its legacy of play streets, seized an opportunity to rekindle its commitment to the safety of children.
It bid successfully for £1.5m of Tory government cash under a ‘Home Zone’ scheme.
The money from the Neighbourhood Road Safety Initative funded traffic calming in the Newport Street/Ashley Street/White Street area of Seedley, the Lewis Street area of Eccles and the Captain Fold Road/Old Lane area of Little Hulton.
Salford was chosen by the government to launch the scheme on September 15, 2004 with a government minister being dispatched to the city.
Trees, chicanes, benches and other street furniture was installed to deter drivers from using the streets as cut-throughs or at least make them slow down.
Over the last decade the city has introduced 20 mph limits around more than 50 of its primary schools, with speed bumps outside some.
Three years ago Councillor Derek Antrobus, lead member for planning and sustainable development, said that in 2013 there were 68 people killed or seriously injured on the city’s roads, including eight children.
“Even one injury is one too many on our roads. Schools have welcomed this extra safety precaution which will also make it safer for parents to walk their children to school,” he said.
The foundation for Salford’s commitment had been laid in 1916, when Joseph Lee, president of the New York City Playground Association said: “Play is not merely a good thing for the child, it is an essential process of his growth… it is for the sake of play that infancy exists.”