6th February 2024
“Children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people.” Mayor Enrique Peñalosa of Bogotá
The poor quality of the streets and roads that we have created over the past one hundred years across the UK has harmed many people and groups but perhaps none more so than children and young people. The examples of this are numerous but include:
- A loss of independent mobility in recent decades – children are less able to roam.
2. The danger to children from our roads – 10 young children (aged seven or under) are killed or seriously injured on British roads every week.
3. High levels of childhood obesity and low levels of activity by children – just 23% of boys and 20% of girls meet the national recommended level of activity.
There are of course many reasons for this but we wanted to focus on the role that our streets and public spaces play. Improving them can play a vital role in helping children to lead healthier, happier and safer lives. In our manifesto for the 2024 London Mayoral and Assembly elections (2nd May 2024), we have put together some ideas as to how to tackle these issues.
Our focus is on making changes to our streets so that they work for our children and young people. Key themes include involving children and young people in street design and decisions about the places they live in, delivering air that is safe to breathe across London, creating journeys to school that are active and safe along with streets and roads work for all of us and especially in the streets where people live, in our town centres and high streets and in the heart of the city that many of us want to visit.
We hope that these ideas will be of value in discussions with Mayoral and Assembly member candidates alike and we look forward to seeing these ideas being included in the policies and approaches of the next and future Mayoral administrations.
Click here to download a pdf of the document.
London Living Streets 