🚨 NEW: The Green Party member who proposed the "Zionism is racism" motion is a close friend of an al-Qaeda terrorist who plotted to bomb passengers arriving at Heathrow from Israel

That's not really the issue with the trade here. As a reminder, private cars were banned a decade ago, so all the traffic there now is necessary for the street to work, whether that's access for emergency vehicles, to deliveries for the shops, or how shoppers will even get there. Firstly, there's a big reduction in the number of bus routes and volume of capacity that will service the area. A couple of routes are being terminated early and the remainder will see cuts in frequency as the road they are being diverted to is smaller (every nearby road is smaller!) and can't take the current level of service. Many of the higher spenders, as well as those with bags, mobility issues and the elderly on taxis to get to the bigger shops and those will also struggle as not all the shops have rear entrances. There's also no step-free access from Oxford Circus tube, so some will struggle to get there at all. TfL have acknowledged access is an issue but the solution to improving the station will take years and costs £ tens of millions. The second big issue is that the retail on Oxford Street is actually a much smaller economic activity than everything else that happens nearby so displacing the traffic from one place to another and not ensuring that those areas don't end up being worse is economically reckless. Again, this is a fixable issue but it needs solutions and it needs to be monitored and there are not enough commitments to making that happen. Finally, there's no alternative route for bicycles, yet. The smaller roads can't take them and there are no other obvious East-West routes. The expectation right now is that they will take large detours, which seems unrealistic. Good pedestrianisation can be wonderful. With time and money this could be great, but there is not enough of either right now. It could be fixed but these are self-imposed problems. If it's going to happen, we should be taking the time to make it the best it can be.

We’re doomed 🤬🐷👺🤡