Soho’s road closure crisis

Published: 1 April, 2011

• IT isn’t merely desirable for Westminster City Council to impose conditions on the sale of commercial property in Soho (Letters, March 18), it is absolutely essential that conditions should apply to both sale and development, if the experience of those of us in Broadwick Street is anything to go by.

We are currently suffering not only from a lack of interest in our community, but an actual indifference to our health and welfare which beggars belief.

In January, for the convenience of a developer and with no prior notice to domestic residents in the area, Poland Street was closed to all daytime traffic – for an incredible 18 months. The impact on those who needed transport to and from hospital and other appointments was immediate, as was that on traffic, which was left with only Beak Street as an exit.

The developer for whom the road was closed also annexed a pavement, leaving only one narrow footway on one side of the street.  Cyclists and even motor cyclists began using this as a rat-run.

In a month this drama became a crisis – Beak Street had to be closed for urgent work to an electric cable, and the traffic in Broadwick Street was gridlocked. 

With only a circuitous exit route via Great Pulteney Street to Brewer Street, which was already thick with vehicles from Regent Street and sent drivers around in a loop, nothing moved.  

Residents protested, businesses protested, the police protested, but appeals by the highways department to the contractors to reopen Poland Street as often as possible were met with only occasional 

co-operation. Naively, perhaps, it seems to have been believed that a crisis would be recognised as such and would be met with a helpful response. Permission to close the street had been obtained at the start – after that, the welfare of the community meant nothing. Less than three months into this commercial development there is much to be learned from this appalling situation.

ALIDA BAXTER
Dufours Place,
Broadwick Street, W1