Westminster City Council is writing to the Government to demand a full environmental impact assessment of the Mayor of London's proposals to pedestrianise Oxford Street, Cllr Tim Barnes, Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council, said in a video filmed on Piccadilly.
Barnes explained his choice of location: it is "pretty well assumed by even the Mayor's team that nitrous oxide levels will exceed the desired targets" there as a result of traffic displaced from Oxford Street, though the full extent of the impact, in Piccadilly and elsewhere, remains unknown. He said such an assessment would normally be expected for a project of this scale, but that the Mayor's team had asked the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to bypass the process altogether. The Council wants assessment details covering air pollution, cyclist and pedestrian safety, noise, and traffic displacement across central London, noting that close to a million people travel into Westminster for work each day, in addition to residents and millions of annual visitors, all of whom could be affected. Barnes said that if the project goes ahead, it should be developed to deliver the best possible outcome, with environmental downsides minimised and economic benefits maximised, and that a full assessment was essential to be honest about both.
Read Tim's comments in full below or watch the video.
"Westminster City Council is writing to the government to demand that there is a full environmental impact assessment on Sadiq Khan's proposals for the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street.
"This is a usual activity. This is something that would normally happen with a project of this scale.
"But the Mayor's team have written to the government in the form of MHCLG to ask that they can bypass that and just get on with the pedestrianisation scheme. We don't think that's a good idea.
"We want to see the details of what the air pollution will be, what the effects on cyclists and pedestrian safety might be, what the effect on noise will be.
"Because the Oxford Street proposals won't just impact Oxford Street itself, it will impact the whole of central London. Westminster sees about a million people, or just under, coming in to work here.
"And all of those people, along with the residents and the millions of visitors we see every year, will be affected by the environmental changes that will come around as a result of this scheme.
"So why am I standing on Piccadilly to talk to you about Oxford Street? Well, this is one of the areas that's already being highlighted.
"It's pretty well assumed by even the Mayor's team that nitrous oxide levels will exceed the desired targets on Piccadilly as a result of the traffic displacement that will take place.
"But we don't know the full extent of that. We don't know what the impact will be in so many other areas because the mayor is once again trying to cut corners.
"And when this project comes to fruition, we want to see it being the best that it can be. We want to see the environmental impacts and the negative sides of that curtailed wherever we can.
"We want to see the best economic impact wherever we can. If this project is going to go ahead, it requires everybody to be honest about the downsides as well as the potential upsides."
