‘We really have to move on from relying on cars to drive around the West End’

• THE debate that has raged for years about the future of Oxford Street is now not just about traffic reduction in the West End but how we deal as a society with the twin nightmares of air pollution and climate change.

We simply cannot allow the centre of our great city to die on its feet and a walk along Oxford Street is now a pretty depressing site with masses of empty shops.

So the status quo is no longer acceptable and the city council should be applauded for at least attempting to breathe new life into the area.

Why is it that in major cities around the world we marvel at the ability to walk around free of the incessant noise and pollution of traffic yet in our own country the slightest change in road patterns brings with it a torrent of opposition?

We really have to move on from relying on cars to drive around the West End. The two piazzas Either side of Oxford Circus are a great start and ideally should be extended into adjacent streets.

As I understand it the Crown Estates are paying a large part of the cost of this work so it’s a win-win situation for us all.

The displacement argument has long been proved false with little or no effect over the medium term. And, please, can we not go back over the bus debate again.

For years we campaigned about the absurd number of bus routes through Oxford Street (at one time 19) and that argument has been won. In any case bus networks are not in the control of the city council, but the mayor and Transport for London.

PETER HARTLEY
Chair, Westminster Living Streets