Cllr Tim Barnes, Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council, has told The Telegraph that the Mayor of London's pedestrianisation of Oxford Street is "anti-democratic" and "rushed".
From Monday 26 October, buses, taxis and cyclists are banned from the stretch of Oxford Street between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street. The Mayor's office describes this as the first phase, with the temporary closure used to gather data ahead of permanent pedestrianisation and an expansion planned for next year.
Westminster City Council rejected pedestrianisation in 2018, and Tim said every public consultation the council has run found the public did not support it. This year the Mayor set up the Oxford Street Development Corporation, appointing eight of its twelve board members, and it was the corporation that approved the scheme.
Tim, who has represented the West End ward since 2018 and lived in the area for 25 years, said: "It's anti-democratic. I feel he's ignoring the people who know the area best. Knowing this is going to happen, our concern is to try to make sure that the good's as good as it can be, and the worst of the bad is ironed out."
He warned that the police have said for a long time they cannot offer any significant number of extra officers for the street, even though concentrated pedestrian areas in London and other major cities tend to bring more theft, pickpocketing, phone snatching and antisocial behaviour. "So you need a significantly increased police presence," he said.
The plans, which include two public squares, more than 100 seats and more than 50 trees by next summer, are expected to cost £150 million, which Tim says is being met entirely from public money.
Westminster Conservatives will keep pressing for the policing, street cleaning and access that residents and businesses need, and for answers on the traffic being pushed onto nearby streets.
You can read Tom Jeffreys's article in The Telegraph in full here.
