The "home zones", which allow children to play games in the street, are designed to improve the quality of life for residents.

Vehicles passing through such areas will have to give way to pedestrians and cyclists and will have to travel very slowly.

Lord Whitty: Balancing the needs of drivers and local communities

Campaigners have welcomed the introduction of home zones - which are already a feature in several other European Union countries - as a way to help people to reclaim their neighbourhoods from traffic.

The UK pilot schemes were announced by Transport Minister Lord Whitty on Wednesday at a street party in London.

Lord Whitty said: "Home zones could improve the streets in which many of us live, by striking a better balance between the needs of drivers and of the local community - particularly children and elderly people.

"Although I believe that these pilot projects will provide an understanding of how we can return streets to residents, we nevertheless have to be sure they are effective in meeting the requirements of the community as a whole."

'Reclaiming the streets'

Tim Gill, director of the Children's Play Council, who helped pick the government pick the nine trial sites, said the scheme was great news, especially for Britain's children.

"The car has been king for too long in our towns and cities. Each year, hundreds of children are killed, thousands injured and millions kept under virtual house arrest because of fears about traffic.

Home zones are already in operation in other EU countries

"It's time for residential streets to be reclaimed for the people who live in them.

The government now needs to move quickly to allow communities up and down the UK to enjoy the benefits of home zones. We need new laws on pedestrian priority, together with speed limits of 10mph or less."

Environmental group Transport 2000 has been campaigning for UK home zones for three years.

The group's assistant director Lynn Sloman said: "Dutch home zones gave us a vision for how to transform British streets into places for people. We're excited the UK is finally learning from this example."

She added that although the pilot programme was a good start the government needed to do much more.

"The Dutch spend around �1.60 per head per year on taming traffic in residential streets, compared with less than 10p here," she said.

However, the AA was more cautious in its welcome for the plans.

Paul Watters, the motoring organisation's head of roads and transport policy said: "As pilots, these schemes are fine, but they will have to be well researched, planned and funded.

"It's going to be difficult in many residential areas to change the environment. We don't want anything done on the cheap and we would not like to see schemes running away with themselves, as some traffic calming measures have."

The pilot areas are:

• Ealing, west London - This takes in Hastings Road, Hartington Road, Broughton Road, Denmark Road and Arden Road, which have suffered rat-running from speeding cars
• Lambeth, south London - The Holmewood area around Streatham Hill where roads surround an open space used for children's play and walking dogs
• Leeds - The Methleys, Chapel Atherton - an area of mainly terraced houses in streets surrounded by main roads with a school nearby
• Monmouthshire, south Wales - Magor Village, a rural area which includes a village square. There have been problems with children walking to school having to cope with traffic, with roads of variable width and inadequate footways
• Manchester - The Longsight home zone forms part of a multi-million pound regeneration scheme in the urban district of Northmoor which has a number of through roads, much on-street parking and few recreational facilities for children
• Nottingham - Nobel Road Estate, Clifton. The area has a number of cul-de-sacs and vandalism and car crime are problems. A shortage of play areas has led to tensions with older residents
• Peterborough - The zone is in New England in an area of Victorian terraced housing subject to some rat-running
• Plymouth - Morice Town - an area near a naval base and which contains two schools, a church, pubs and a derelict playground. Fast through-traffic is a problem
• Sittingbourne, Kent - Cavel Way, a deprived area where residents are concerned about the speed of traffic.