{"id":959355,"date":"2026-05-14T13:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959355\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:28:18","slug":"sadiq-khan-approves-extra-6m-for-oxford-street-pedestrianisation-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959355\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan approves extra \u00a36m for Oxford Street pedestrianisation plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Mayor of London has approved just over \u00a36 million in additional funding to plan for the proposed pedestrianisation of Oxford Street.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/oxford-street-empty-christmas-day-by-ianvisits.jpg\" class=\"lightbox\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-83625 leaderimagetop\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/oxford-street-empty-christmas-day-by-ianvisits.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"652\" data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/a>A very empty Oxford Street \u2013 Christmas Day 2008 (c) ianVisits<\/p>\n<p>As part of plans to create a Mayoral Development Area (MDA) around Oxford Street, in September 2025, the Mayor approved the designation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ianvisits.co.uk\/articles\/tag\/oxford-street\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oxford Street<\/a> and several side streets as GLA Roads \u2013 and hence managed by Transport for London (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ianvisits.co.uk\/articles\/tag\/tfl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TfL<\/a>) rather than Westminster Council.<\/p>\n<p>The Mayor has now approved the transfer of \u00a36.29m from GLA Group reserves to cover the preparation costs for pedestrianising Oxford Street, and ongoing maintenance of the roads in the meantime.<\/p>\n<p>A Mayoral Decision states that funding is needed within this financial year because the project\u2019s delivery has been faster than predicted at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n<p>It notes that the formal decision to pedestrianise Oxford Street hasn\u2019t been taken yet, so the \u201cpreparatory and design work is being progressed at risk\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s more significant now than it was a week ago.<\/p>\n<p>When the Mayor of London <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ianvisits.co.uk\/articles\/another-plan-to-pedestrianise-oxford-street-announced-75593\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">took control<\/a> of the area around Oxford Street, it was done against the wishes of the Labour-controlled Westminster Council, who complained at the time that they had less than a week\u2019s notice of the Mayor\u2019s intentions. They later accepted the fait accompli and worked to support the measure.<\/p>\n<p>However, following the recent local elections, Westminster Council returned to Conservative control and has already indicated it will oppose the Mayor\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n<p>At a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlondon.co.uk\/westminster-councils-new-tory-leader-lists-possible-grounds-for-oxford-street-pedestrianisation-legal-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent post-election event<\/a>, Westminster Council\u2019s new leader, Paul Swaddle, accused the Mayor of pursuing a \u201cvanity project\u201d and that he had already instructed the council\u2019s CEO to \u201cseek legal advice and to fight the Mayor\u201d and \u201clook at all the legal avenues that are available to us\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, TfL is currently the legally responsible body for maintaining Oxford Street, and the Mayor has approved funding to continue the work until the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>If the Mayor of London\u2019s plans go ahead, the Mayoral decision says that future maintenance arrangements and costs will be agreed in discussion between the Oxford Street MDC, once established, and TfL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mayor of London has approved just over \u00a36 million in additional funding to plan for the proposed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-959355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116573169719178101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}