On London Extra: Who is the West End for?
The big question raised by the Mayor's Oxford Street plans. Plus, so what if the Standard's gone, Sadiq's week, bits of joy and more
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The Mayor's dramatic Oxford Street intervention has vividly exposed the full set of conflicts that go with any major regeneration plan in London, along with raising related questions about where political power to take the relevant decisions ought to lie. The big question is this: who should the West End be for?
Spare a thought for those leading Westminster Council. I know Labour people who have been battling uphill there for decades - going right back to the Shirley Porter era - to end Tory control.
Having finally done it two years ago, the new administration went on to craft a non-pedestrianisation scheme for improving the environment on and around Oxford Street that all the extremely varied interested parties could sign up to. No easy task.
Preliminary work on implementing it had just begun when, feckin hell, who should stomp on to their patch wearing their Bigger Government boots but Mayor Sadiq and, from another part of Westminster, his new best friend Deputy PM Angela Rayner.
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