Early October has seen a flurry of announcements concerning Oxford Street. Westminster City Council have continued to honour their election pledges and listen to the West End, residents and businesses. The Council Leader has personally confirmed again that they are no longer supporting the Mayor’s plan to pedestrianise and that they are going it alone with a bold scheme to put £150 million over three years, not just into Oxford Street, but into a scheme which is genuinely for the improvement of the whole Oxford Street District- Link to Leaders Update October 2018
In this they now have the support of all the West End amenity societies, who are already being actively consulted by Westminster as part of their engagement process. The Council now understands the importance of protecting the iconic neighbourhoods around Oxford Street: Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Mayfair and Soho. They are aiming to unveil their scheme at the end of the month, and go out to public consultation on it in November for 6 weeks.
At that stage Westminster Council will be seeking the views of those who live, work or have an interest in the area on the new Oxford Street strategy and to that end a new website has been launched at https://osd.london. This will provide details of proposals for the Oxford Street District as well as information about the forthcoming consultation and how the public can give their views. We would urge all those who have shown so much interest in the future of Oxford Street to visit that website and use this opportunity to help develop the scheme with their constructive views on the area.
Westminster have also launched an Oxford Street District newsletter to keep people updated which can be subscribed to from the Oxford Street District website.
All good news then? – So far, so good, but watch this space and we will keep you updated. The next key date is the meeting of the Westminster Council Cabinet on 25th October where the decision on the draft Place Strategy and Delivery Plan for Oxford Street will be formally set out and sanctioned.
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