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Sadiq Khan鈥檚 dramatic plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street have been backed by Camden鈥檚 council leader at a Greater London Authority committee, despite warnings from another witness about the scheme鈥檚 potential impact on investment.

The mayor of London released his proposals for the redevelopment of the area last September and, at the end of February, published a consultation on creating a Mayoral Development Corporation to deliver the plan.

Khan is seeking responsibility for plan-making and the determination of planning applications across the area around Oxford Street, the vast majority of which lies in Westminster, with a small part of Camden also included.

The council leader for the latter borough, Cllr Richard Olszewski, told a London Assembly planning and regeneration committee earlier this week that he and his peers at the council 鈥渨elcome the proposals which could transform the area and the wider West End by increasing visitors, improving air quality, creating more jobs and supporting businesses to thrive鈥�.

He added that Camden was 鈥渁lso seeking to form a partnership and set agreements with the Mayor鈥� to ensure local residents could 鈥減lay an active and full part in its future鈥�.

However, the committee meeting also saw the plans subjected to strong criticism from Tim Lord, chair of The Soho Society and the Westminster Amenity Societies Forum, both organisations representing the area around Oxford Street and the West End.

Lord said that Khan鈥檚 September announcement had been 鈥渁 tragic mistake鈥� because there had been consensus around an existing scheme for the redevelopment of the area.

Urban design practice Publica had previously been working on a 拢90m plan for the street proposed by Westminster council, which had blocked a previous attempt at pedestrianisation in 2018 due to concerns over the need to reroute traffic into quieter surrounding streets.

All of that work has now been lost and wasted because of a press release from the mayor in September saying that he might consider pedestrianization that then triggered all the businesses to pull their funding from that scheme, and the residents are, I would say, pretty disappointed,鈥� said Lord.

鈥淲e now have a whole debate about what will happen to all of planning in the mayoral development area.

鈥淚 think all of the property developers will wait till the end of that debate before they make any more investments, because the planning rules might change. 

鈥淲e might have a different planning policy for the mayoral development area than we do for the rest of Westminster.鈥�

The consultation on the creation of a Mayoral Development Corporation will continue until 2 May 2025.

As well as planning powers, the proposals would see the GLA take responsibility for the road itself and retain the nieghbourhood portion of the Community Infrastructure Levy for developments within the designated area.

The MDC would be controlled by a board of up to 13 members including an independent chair appointed by the Mayor and representatives from each of the two councils.

The London Assembly has the power to veto the designation of a Mayoral Development Area with a two-thirds majority vote, although this would require some of the mayor鈥檚 own party to support the veto.