New West End Company chair Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas has called on London Mayor Boris Johnson to reduce congestion on Oxford Street and Regent Street.

Speaking at a London Assembly Transport Committee meeting on Tuesday, to discuss the problem of congestion on the thoroughfares, Mayhew urged Johnson to rethink bus routes on the streets.

She said buses were contributing to over-congestion, which detracts from shoppers’ experience of the West End.

Transport for London Surface Transport managing director David Brown said at the meeting that the agency wanted to reduce the number of buses on Oxford Street by 10 per cent this year and another 10 per cent next year.

Mayhew dismissed the possibility of full pedestrianisation of either Regent Street or Oxford Street – which has been mooted in the past – as “unfeasible”, but maintained there were options aside from bus reduction that could ease congestion.

Topics