Tories pledge to fight Oxford Street pedestrianisation after winning back Westminster
The Tories have vowed to launch a legal challenge against Sir Sadiq Khan's plans to ban traffic from Oxford Street
The Conservatives have promised to launch a legal challenge against Sir Sadiq Khan's pedestrianisation of Oxford Street after winning back control of Westminster City Council.
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The Tories won 32 seats with Labour on 22 following a "knife-edge" struggle for the symbolic council, which covers Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.
Westminster fell to Labour for the first time in 2022, after more than five decades of undisrupted Conservative control since its creation in 1965.
Conservative Westminster Group Leader, Paul Swaddle, who will become the next leader of the council, confirmed the local authority will be creating a legal fund to fight the Mayor over his plans to close Oxford Street to vehicles.
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It will be good news for those who were unhappy with the Mayor's plans to pedestrianise the world-famous shopping street.
It is already mostly car free, with only buses and black cabs allowed down parts of the street.
Sir Sadiq approved the plans in February this year, which will ban traffic between Orchard Street, by Selfridges, and Great Portland Street.
To push ahead with the plans, the Mayor had to apply for a new Mayoral Development Corporation empowering him to override Westminster City Council to grant Transport for London control of the road.
City Hall documents authorising the closure state traffic will be banned in "summer 2026".
The revamp is expected to cost around £150 million.
If Sir Sadiq has his way, the entire 1.2 mile street between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road would eventually become fully pedestrianised.
The plans have been controversial, with hundreds of respondents opposing the proposed changes which could increase congestion on the surrounding roads and lead to buses being re-routed.