Act Now

Take just one minute today to tell TfL your views on Oxford Street.

Online Survey (note you will need to register)

If you prefer, you can also let us have your comments by: 

Email: haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk   (we suggest you copy Campaign@betteroxfordstreet.com so TfL don't overlook your response!)

By post: FREEPOST TFL HAVE YOUR SAY (Oxford Street) (no postage stamp required)

The closing date for comments is Friday 16 January 2026

We are concerned about:

The Mayor of London proposes to pedestrianise Oxford Street and create a new Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), transferring planning and transport powers from Westminster City Council to a board of 12 unelected appointees mainly answerable to the Mayor.

These proposals will significantly affect residents across the West End — in Marylebone, Mayfair, Fitzrovia, Soho — and beyond. Accessibility to and through the area from Bayswater, Paddington and St John’s Wood, and many other areas, will also be badly affected.

But there will be no resident representatives on the MDC.

This scheme brings with it many problems:

Problems with the Scheme

• Extreme displacement of traffic into residential streets.

• Dangerous concentration of buses in narrow side streets (Wigmore, Henrietta Place, GPS, Margaret Street, Great Portland Street).

• Night-time disturbance from diverted buses and displaced HGV servicing.

• Daytime servicing shifted from Oxford Street into residential streets.

• Junction failures causing area-wide congestion.

• Environmental degradation from pollutant displacement.

Accessibility Problems – to all Bus Users

• Loss of direct buses into the West End from Bayswater, Paddington, St John’s Wood, Maida Vale, Notting Hill and other north-west London areas.

• Passengers who previously had a single-seat journey must now change at Marble Arch and complete their trip via slow, diverted services.

• Diverted buses make a minimum of six tight turns through narrow, congested roads instead of travelling directly along Oxford Street.

• Disabled passengers face major barriers: the walk from Wigmore Street or Margaret Street to Oxford Street is long, crowded, uneven and obstructed.

• Wheelchair users face kerbside conflicts with delivery vehicles, cages and loading bays now pushed into side streets.

• Older people, visually impaired residents and those with health conditions may find the “last 200–300 metres” effectively impossible.

• Working people who depend on the bus to get to their jobs in Oxford Street — or through it.

• Everyone else going to Oxford Street who will now need to walk through crowded side streets to get there from the new bus stops.

• The scheme risks making Oxford Street inaccessible for thousands who depend on direct, level-access bus routes.

Multiple Problems with the Proposed MDC

• Removal of democratic control from West End residents — decisions taken by a board with no local mandate, answerable only to the Mayor.

• The area to be run by a committee with the ability to override Westminster’s City Plan, local conservation policy and resident priorities.

• Massive duplication of planning, highways and public realm functions.

• Huge cost to taxpayers: new offices, 50+ staff, £200,000 CEO salary plus directors.

• Conflicting and overlapping governance with Westminster City Council, leading to operational confusion.

• Its stated intention is to bring the 24-hour economy into the Oxford Street area — by extending licensing hours and allowing far more nightclubs, restaurants and bars to stay open for longer.

• The creation of a precedent that could allow future takeovers of other neighbourhoods across London.

Where’s the Gain?

A scheme that offers no benefit for residents — but there is very little benefit for anyone else.

Instead, it appears designed to allow the Mayor to place commercial stalls, kiosks and temporary trading units along the centre of Oxford Street — enabling private operators to profit from public land.

In addition, he wants to extend hours of trading deep into the night, and will introduce many more late-night activities, such as nightclubs. Surrounding neighbourhoods will bear the brunt with displaced traffic, noise, pollution and a deteriorating environment; other areas suffer loss of direct bus routes and reduced disabled access; and we all will suffer from a removal of democratic oversight through the MDC.

The negatives are clear:

• Higher congestion, noise, safety concerns and environmental decline.

• Traffic reversals and circulation changes alter the residential environment.

• Multiple bus diversions in Marylebone and Fitzrovia.

• Passengers who want to be in Oxford Street find themselves discharged into the overcrowded streets of Marylebone, adding to congestion and safety issues.

• Greater presence of delivery vans and construction traffic.

• Drivers will use surrounding areas as a bypass to avoid congestion on the Oxford Street approaches.

• More taxis and PHVs circulating in the area.

• Increased idling and pollution.

• Traffic redirected into residential areas.

Residents are left asking: where is the public gain in return for all this disruption?

Conclusion

The combined effect of the Oxford Street transport scheme and the proposed MDC is a less accessible, less democratic and more congested West End.

Despite all the disruption, the scheme delivers no meaningful benefit for residents; instead, it prioritises commercial opportunities on Oxford Street at the expense of local amenity.

Many thousands face reduced mobility, environmental harm and diminished democratic influence over decisions affecting their neighbourhood — and if this succeeds, all Londoners face an ugly precedent for further mayoral interventions, sweeping aside their elected representatives to make way for another hubris-fuelled scheme — maybe in their area next