A major new report from Fair Play for Children has uncovered a "catastrophic" reduction in street playspace available to England's young people over the past 40 years.

Stolen Streets estimated that between 300,000 and 750,000 acres (121,406-303,514 hectares) of informal street playspaces have been lost to parked cars since the 1970s. The research also revealed that there is currently 1 acre (0.4 hectares) of public playground for more than 750 children, while the child population is set to reach 13 million in 2025.

Solutions proposed by Fair Play for Children include an audit of all existing and potential parking space in residential streets performed by local authorities. Fair Play for Children national secretary Jan Cosgrove said: "Residential streets could provide playspace of one acre for every 14 kids, in our calculation.

"The question is, how do we recover that space and balance the needs of children with the requirement of adults to park their cars?"