There are ways Westminster council can control candy and souvenir outlets that don’t require further legislation, write James Pollard, Michael Barron and Tim Law
Re your article (Where did all those US sweet shops in London come from? The problem is, we don’t know, 4 July), Cllr Adam Hug is right to sound the alarm over the spread of American sweet shops along Oxford Street. However, his suggestion that further legislation is required before the problem can be adequately addressed misses that this phenomenon is yet another symptom of the death of the high street, a problem for which Westminster council already has a solution within its power: pedestrianisation.
Oxford Street remains polluted and overcrowded thanks to its heavy footfall; with 70% of visitors arriving via the underground, vehicular traffic serves mostly to drive consumers away rather than as a means of transporting them to the businesses that have so greatly suffered over the trials of the past two years. In July 2021, Westminster council itself estimated that the (now recently opened) Elizabeth line would bring an additional 60 million pedestrians to the West End a year, further exacerbating the issue and making the need for change all the more urgent.
