GIVING RESIDENTS A VOICE ON OXFORD STREET PROPOSALS
The Mayor of London is determined to pedestrianise the entire length of Oxford Street. Even though the street is the responsibility of Westminster City Council, the Mayor could invoke powers to take over the street if the council does not co-operate with City Hall. Only the Conservatives can stand up against the Mayor to protect local amenity, ensure that the voice of local people is heard and fight to prevent a scheme being implemented which would be damaging to our precious community.
Westminster Conservatives were very concerned to learn that a number of resident’s comments were left out of the last consultation. We lobbied TfL successfully to reopen the consultation to ensure everyone who had attempted to comment was able to resubmit their submissions.
We are standing up for our residents, ensuring their wide range of views are clearly heard and understood. That is why we have set out our Eight Pledges to ensure that the streets surrounding Oxford Street are protected from rat running and to safe guard air quality. If our red lines are not adopted and funding streams to maintain the road are not guaranteed we have made it clear we will not support pedestrianisation.
We pledge to:
- Ensure pollution levels will reduce across the district. As well as initiatives such as the Ultra-Low Emission Zone for central London, only two bus routes, using the greenest vehicles, would run through the district, a reduction of almost 100 buses an hour running at peak times. We are monitoring air quality at 100 sites across the West End.
- Ensure traffic won’t rat run down narrow residential roads. We will carefully design the scheme to avoid creating congestion elsewhere. TfL is investing in advanced traffic signal technology to allow them to better manage traffic depending on differing conditions at any given time, and we are working to improve road user information so people can make informed journey choices before they travel.
- Ensure that pedestrianised areas and surrounding streets will be effectively managed at all times Uniformed officers would have the powers they need for effective enforcement to tackle unlicensed or anti-social activity, both day and night. Security, including anti-terrorism measures, will be well designed and proportionate and keep people safer.
- Make sure that Oxford Street must remain accessible to all The new Elizabeth Line will be step free and some new bus stops would be situated within one block of any traffic free section of Oxford Street and as close as possible to any pedestrianised area. We will also be looking at a new local mobility scheme along Oxford Street to further boost accessibility. Taxis would be able to drop off and collect passengers at the rear of some stores and on each of the side roads.
- Ensure deliveries will be properly controlled and not cause greater local inconvenience Research shows that very few shops are serviced from the front via Oxford Street. Our plan would be to maximumise the distance a loading bay would be no more than 50 metres. We would use all of our enforcement powers to make sure delivery rules will not be flouted.
- Make sure that night-time traffic should not unduly increase disturbance We would monitor noise across the district, making all data available, and develop mitigation measures, including changing the scheme, should that be required.
- Ensure there will be adequate, safe and quiet cycle routes through the area We would proposal a high quality east-west cycle route to the north of Oxford Street. This network would complement new facilities coming to the area.
- Ensure resident parking bays will be protected Our plans would ensure that there would be no impact on the amount of resident, disabled and motorcycle parking currently available.
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