Andy Lord on pedestrianisation of Oxford Street

Transcript

00:00Well, we're working with GLA colleagues and all other stakeholders on that consultation.

00:06The one-day closure a couple of weeks ago was extremely successful. You've seen the

00:10statistics of what a benefit it was to Oxford Street pedestrianisation. We're really excited

00:15about the project and look forward to getting the consultation going and getting the plans

00:20in place to fully make it pedestrianised.

00:22How did you work out where to put the buses? Because that's always been the headache,

00:26but you seem to manage it for one day.

00:27Yeah, so there's been a lot of detailed planning on what the options are and we'll

00:30work with Westminster Council on that and then the consultation of it. Because of course,

00:36whilst we want to pedestrianise the Oxford Street, we want to make sure we have a fully accessible

00:41and operationally reliable bus network to get people into the area and away when they're

00:46finished going to Oxford Street for whatever they want to use it for.

00:49What's the sort of timeline that you're thinking of in terms of actually seeing changes on the

00:54ground in Oxford Street in a permanent way?

00:56Well, we're still working through that, but we're obviously keen to do it as quickly as

01:00we can, working with the stakeholders involved. So no firm date from our perspective and we'll

01:05work very closely with the Mayor's office and Westminster, but we want to do it as soon

01:10as we can.

01:11I think it's likely it'll be in place by May 2028?

01:14Well, I hope we'll do it as quickly as we can. So, you know, the Mayor's got a very strong

01:18ambition to get it done. I don't see any reason why that isn't achievable.

01:21That's the reason why that isn't achievable.