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City Centre

Child Friendly City Centre Project 

In 2017, Child Friendly Leeds was celebrating being 5 years old! As part of the celebration, we ran a city-wide competition for children and young people aged 4 - 18 (up to 25 with additional needs). The competition asked for ‘low cost’ and ‘no cost’ ideas to make Leeds city centre more inclusive and appealing for children, young people and families. The competition had 5 categories which were linked to the 12 Child Friendly wishes: 

  • Built Environment
  • Events and Activities
  • Safety
  • Travel
  • People

The response to the competition was amazing, with over 350 entries. We also sent out a parent/ carer questionnaire to understand a family’s perspective too.  

We then invited the young people to present their winning ideas to colleagues, leaders and city centre ambassadors to form project plans, generate investment and begin a commitment to developing the city centre through the lens of a child. From Tim Gill talking about Exploring child friendly cities across the globe to Tom Riordan expressing his support for Child Friendly to inspiring children, all ambassadors left with pledges and a real commitment to enhance our city centre.  

City Centre Partnership 

This competition led to a group of city centre partners meeting, all sharing the goal of making Leeds a child-friendly destination. This partnership includes representatives from across the city-centre, from Leeds Central Library to Leeds BID. 

Here are some examples of projects the city centre partnership has worked on together: 

Want to work with us on a project like this? Get in touch at childfriendlyleeds@leeds.gov.uk  

City Centre Map 

Another fantastic idea by children and young people as part of the city centre project was to have a child friendly city centre map. We consulted with children and young people, to find out what they’d like to have on a map of the city centre.

The map has been updated a few times since it was first created, and can be used digitally OR you can pick up a copy for free from one of the following locations: 

View the map on visitleeds.co.uk

Tall display sign in Leeds city centre

We recently worked with the City Centre team at Leeds City Council to display our Child Friendly Leeds map on certain wayfinding units around the city.