Next mayor should seize control of Oxford Street and High Street Kensington, says Green candidate Sian Berry

Councils ‘should not be allowed to block schemes to encourage walking and cycling’

Oxford Street should be brought under the control of the mayor to allow it to be pedestrianised, Green candidate Sian Berry said today.

Roads such as High Street Kensington and Holland Park Avenue should also be seized by Transport for London to overcome council objections to building safe cycle routes, she said.

Ms Berry, who wants to spend £400m a year on cycle schemes, believes it is vital to complete a network of strategic routes “as quickly as possible”, and improve safety at more than 200 dangerous junctions, to encourage Londoners to walk and cycle.

Asked about High Street Kensington, Ms Berry told the Standard: “We have tried over and over again to put a strategic route through there and it is an obvious gap in the cycle network.

“The mayor needs to be using the powers that we have in the GLA [Greater London Authority] Act to take in roads that are owned by boroughs into TfL’s control. We will take over the running of it and the costs of running it so we can do these strategic routes.

“I think that should have been done over Oxford Street as well. We put a motion to the assembly asking the mayor to use these powers over that road [to get it pedestrianised].

“It is important that we do have a strategic network that works for people trying to get from one part of London to another.”

Simon Munk, of the London Cycling Campaign, said: "For roads of strategic importance, where there’s a clear case to make changes, if the borough won’t act, there should be a process to make sure the Mayor can.

“It isn’t right that a handful of borough councillors decide if whole swathes of London do or don’t get safe crossings and cycle routes."

Sadiq Khan: Touring the 33 boroughs in the last week of the mayoral race
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Mr Khan was today setting off on a 33-borough tour of the capital in the six days to polling next Thursday. His Tory rival Shaun Bailey was concluding a 36-hour visit to every borough in his battle bus.

Mr Khan unveiled plans for a year-long promotional drive to attract visitors back into central London, saying it would start on his first day back at City Hall if re-elected for a second term.

He believes the plans to end the last of the lockdown restrictions on June 21 will be a “complete game changer” in the city’s fortunes and could spark a “big surge in tourists coming to London”, especially with restrictions likely on many foreign holiday destinations.

He is pinning his hopes on the eight Euro 2021 games being played at Wembley – the national stadium was given an extra match last week after Dublin was axed as a host city due to covid – plus England’s cricket matches against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan to attract huge crowds to London.

His £6m “reopening campaign” would bring together leading bodies in hospitality, tourism and culture. This would focus on getting visitors back to the West End and ensuring shops and restaurants are able to cash in on Christmas.

Mr Bailey has called for a “bigger push” from TfL to reassure passengers that it is safe to use public transport.

Today he also promised to suspend all “unwanted” low-traffic neighbourhood schemes (LTNs), about 80 of which were introduced across the capital in the wake of the first wave of the pandemic to prevent motorists rat-running through residential streets.

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