00:00regent street is set to close to traffic for the first time since twenty twenty for a car free day for shopping and public events the announcement noted that oxford street had also been pedestrianised previously for a day in the past most recently
00:19in september as part of efforts to demonstrate how future traffic restrictions might operate and now region street is set for a day of traffic closure as well organizers said the central london street would be pedestrianized between oxford circus and piccadilly circus they added that the street had last been closed to traffic at weekends before christmas in twenty twenty when the measure was introduced to encourage shoppers after the
00:49covid lockdown now this is the second time a famous london street has been pedestrianized for a day as i said earlier oxford street was pedestrianized for a day in september with london mayor saying it was a massive success here is what he had to say
01:07well i'm i'm of a vintage i remember how wonderful oxford street uh was it was a vibrant street great shops i spent many
01:16saturday with my daughters inside chop shop uh but the reality is there's been in decline for some time
01:22i'd call it managed decline you've seen a situation where more and more people are shopping online
01:27or going to out of town center shopping centers uh high profile shops have left oxford street and the
01:33pandemic was a real you know body blow to this street so what our plans are is to pedestrianize this street
01:40going forward uh where this is a place where people can walk it increases footfall it increases spend a
01:46great place to shop to do leisure i fully understand uh those minority of residents who have uh concerns
01:54uh we've consulted a number of occasions in the past more than 60 of residents have supported plans to
01:59pedestrianize uh the street most recently more than 70 of those who responded uh support our plans we're
02:06going to carry on not just working with residents and the council work with retailers landowners and
02:11others to make sure we can return this street to its you know previous glory the nation's high street
02:17where shops and businesses and residents flourish and thrive well we've already worked with councils to
02:23pedestrianize parts of london outside somerset house uh we've uh this summer invested in al fresco
02:30dining during the summer months so we uh are working with the government as we can have more powers over
02:35licensing and so forth i think hospitality retail are really important sectors in our economy but
02:40also they're one of the reasons people love to come to uh london uh it's really important to
02:45recognize that these are jewels in our capital city's crown and that's what we're going to carry
02:49on thinking about what we what more we can do uh for london's current being the greatest city in the world
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