As Leader of Westminster Council I think I need to clear up some facts. Soho Society does not object to all applications in Soho, and it is not funded by the Council they have been award a couple of small grants for specific community events. The Licencing Committee at Westminster makes decisions based on the law and grants many if not most licence that are applied for, and the Soho society does not get any special consideration, all representations are considered equally. Also there are lots of late night bars in Soho, and not sure some of the people talking down London night life have been out recently in Soho.
The Soho Fete 🥳 2026
Sunday 19th July 12-6pm
St Anne’s Gardens Wardour St
🥳6 hours live entertainment
🍺@FrenchHouseSoho Bar
🏃🏽♀️The Soho Waiters Race sponsored by @SquareUK
🐕Dog Show
👮🚒Tug of War
+more!
Priority entry Soho Society members more via website 🐌🐌🐌🎉
@limebike can you sort this out ? Not after 11pm people do live here. There are another 10 bikes all over the place. This is not a parking bay for your bikes. @CityWestminster
Time for @MayorofLondon and @tfl to licence them before there are more accidents. These unlicensed 'machines' are all over #Soho, and wuder #WestEnd.
Person jumps from window to escape fire as pedicab storage unit burns https://t.co/YLMT6e8py8
#London
Transport for London income from fines on major routes rises 57%
The AA has accused the transport authority of relying on drivers to break the rules in order to maintain its income
BBC News https://t.co/FFWeNNO0jC
@Keir_Starmer you should be embarrassed to say there is no money to build houses or the police or even the #NHS#London. But it is okay to use millions of pounds #pedestrianising#oxford street. IDIOT THE PLANS ARE DREADFUL
Dear @MayorofLondon,
I tried replying to your post of images about #OxfordStreet but your team have turned off replies, likely because of the large number of those criticising the idea, but a bad look when you are already ignoring past discussions and views from local people.
This is a public message to you with ten points on why I believe it will not work and you risk damaging #London and the prospects for growth.
The issue isn't how the street could look. A bit of #GenAI and anyone could show a magical, mythical, beautiful #OxfordStreet. The images you shared are great.
The problems are all about how that street will function not imagining what it might look like. There are streets in #Paris where similar ideas have led to damaging drops in sales and tumbling rents.
Please rethink this now.
(1) Where will the buses and taxis go? The small streets every side of Oxford Street were laid out in the days of horse and cart and cannot take the load of vehicles that will be forced on to them.
(2) How will those businesses be serviced? Will they be pushed in to the backstreets, too, forcing local residents out of their homes? We are already seeing businesses decline because there are not enough local people on the slow days.
(3) How will the elderly and disabled get there? The buses will be too far from the street for many to be able to make it. Or are you planning a centre that can only be accessed by the young and able-bodied?
(4) Maybe you are planning to demolish homes and offices that are just in the way? Purchasing those would cost billions. Ask @GrosvenorPropUK
(5) A version of this plan went for public consultation in 2018. Local people who know the area REJECTED the plan because they understood it wouldn't work. You know that because you vowed at the time to ignore them and come back again with the plan and now you are reviving this Frankenstein policy.
(6) #Conservative and #Labour @CityWestminster councils in #Westminster spent over a decade looking at options and concluded regeneration was a better route. There is actual cross-party agreement here and it's being ignored!
(7) Millions have been committed and the spending has started. That money would be wasted under this plan and the whole area will wait another two years for anything major to happen. Can't see how @newwestend really think that's a good idea, whatever they feel they have to say in public.
(8) This new model of a development corporation isn't about making something happen because people here are NIMBYs. It's about riding roughshod over local democracy and the understanding of local people who like the idea of the street being improved but know this will not work.
It's ego, not progress.
(9) Pedestrianisation can be great. This is South Molton Street just off Oxford St. it works because it's short, easy to access and didn't displace so much traffic that it couldn't be absorbed. More of this would be wonderful.
(10) This proposal is like turning every motorway in the country in to a walking path and telling vehicles to only use B roads. It will be a net destroyer of business value and homes.
@CLWCA@paulswaddle
My plan to make London safer:
1. Bring back borough-based policing
2. Recruit 1,500 more police officers
3. Open at least 2 new police bases in every single borough
4. Appoint a women’s commissioner
5. Put more CCTV on the Underground