Londoners have said ‘it wouldn’t work’ while others claim it should be done.
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00:00The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been accused of attempting to power grab in his latest push to pedestrianise Oxford Street,
00:10one of the capital's most iconic retail destinations, as a public consultation on the proposals near its close.
00:18The Mayor is seeking to use new planning powers to take control of the Oxford Street District away from Westminster City Council,
00:26a move that has sparked political backlash even from within his own party.
00:31Khan argues that urgent action is needed to revitalise the famous shopping street,
00:37which has seen declining footfall and the loss of major high street brands in recent years, including Debenhams and House of Fraser.
00:46His plan would transform the stretch from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus into a world-class, accessible, clean avenue, he claims,
00:55and could eventually extend east towards Tottenham Court Road.
00:59The project is expected to cost around £150 million if it goes ahead.
01:05However, the proposals have not landed well at all with politicians at City Hall.
01:09Andrew Boff, chair of the London's Assembly and Planning and Regeneration Committee,
01:15said that he is deeply concerned that this is a power grab from the London Mayor.
01:19But what do London locals think of pedestrianising Oxford Street?
01:22I'm sure it's not the only street in London or in another major city that has pedestrianised times.
01:32I think if you go to places like Barcelona, for example, there's a lot of pedestrianisation there.
01:38You've got shops there. How are they going to get their deliveries?
01:40The logistics would be a big problem, that's the way I see it. I can't see that being pedestrianised.
01:50Obviously, it's a big retail area, so they will need to get deliveries, so I'll have to probably schedule things.
01:58But I cycle a lot, and cycling down the middle of Oxford Street is awful.
02:04There's loads of pollution, there's lots of traffic, there's chances to get knocked off.
02:10I'd say it's probably a good idea to at least trial pedestrianising Oxford Street.
02:19It's a bit too difficult. I could see it being one-way street, which way I couldn't tell,
02:26but a one-way system would probably work better, and that would help with the shops and minimise traffic, that's fine, yeah.
02:38It is a, I mean, it draws a lot of tourists. It's a big commercial centre, and it's very busy.
02:45If you walk down the street sometimes, especially around Oxford Circus, at some parts of the day, it's just mayhem.
02:51So to be able to allow people to have a bit more space in those kind of congested areas is probably a good thing on balance.