Cllr Tim Barnes, Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council and Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, has told the Daily Mail that closing Oxford Street to traffic was always going to cause problems on the smaller streets around it. Since the Mayor of London’s pedestrianisation scheme came into force, drivers, black cabs and buses have faced long queues on neighbouring roads.
The scheme bans cars, buses, taxis and cyclists from almost a kilometre of Oxford Street, between Orchard Street, near Selfridges, and Great Portland Street. Transport for London has moved five bus routes, the 98, 139, 390, N98 and N207, on to surrounding roads including Wigmore Street, Henrietta Place and Cavendish Place, and video showed cars and buses at a standstill along most of Wigmore Street.
Cllr Barnes said: “We have been concerned from the outset that taking London’s main east-west road and pushing it to the smaller side roads behind was always going to inevitably lead to traffic problems. You just can’t take that much traffic out of central London and push it on to roads that are smaller, less well suited to taking big vehicles, and not expect it to cause problems.
“Last night there were all sorts of complications. There was traffic on Regent Street that was backed up, and indeed it stopped for so long at times that we even saw a big waste truck having to turn around and go the wrong way [up the street].
“And if you look at Wigmore Street, there are points where buses now have to make very, very hard right-hand turns or 90-degree turns, which I think will be a problem for pedestrians and cyclists. I also think it’s only a matter of time until we see more incidents with cyclists hitting pedestrians on Oxford Street itself.”
Westminster City Council warned before the closure that the scheme risked serious problems for residents, businesses and drivers. Cllr Barnes had said: “If this is going to be the ‘greener, better and more prosperous’ success that the mayor has promised, then issues around access, air pollution, street cleaning and public safety need answers urgently. Right now there’s a danger that we will have all of the downsides and too little upside.”
Marylebone residents raised the same fears. The Marylebone Association calculated that Wigmore Street could see around 46 extra bus movements an hour at peak times. Read what Cllr Barnes warned before the closure.
