Plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street in London have been scrapped by Westminster City Council.

In a statement, Council Leader Nickie Aiken said it was clear through two public consultations and recent council elections that local people "do not support the pedestrianisation proposals".

"Westminster City Council is hugely ambitious for Oxford St and we will do everything we can to ensure the district’s long term success in the face of a challenging and ever changing economic and retail environment," she said.

"We will now look to develop fresh plans to achieve this, but we can confirm that the council does not support the full scale pedestrianisation of Oxford Street and believes a rethink of the whole strategy is now required."

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Continuing, Cllr Aiken added that doing nothing to improve the area "is not an option either if we are to maximise the potential benefits from the opening of the Elizabeth Line".

"We must future-proof Oxford St and the surrounding district so it remains the pre-eminent shopping district in the UK and maintains its crown as the nation’s high street. The news that the House of Fraser will be closing their Oxford Street store only confirms our view that we all have to work harder to help the retail industry to grow and evolve, not simply stand still or just focus on traffic."

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the decision will be seen as a "betrayal of the millions of Londoners & visitors to our city who would have benefited from making Oxford Street a safer & healthier environment".

He said: "All the main mayoral candidates agreed on the need for the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street at the last election, as did Westminster Council until today (07 June).

"This now poses a real threat to the future of Oxford Street, which could not be worse timed, coming on the same day House of Fraser announced they will be closing their Oxford Street store."

(LM/MH)