Soho gridlock goes on

Published: 24 June 2011

TRAFFIC in and around Broadwick Street was repeatedly gridlocked last week, culminating on Friday when vehicles which had attempted to get into Broadwick Street from Berwick Street stretched all the way back along Great Marlborough Street.  

Nothing in Lexington Street, Beak Street or Broadwick Street was moving – there was clearly a problem in Beak Street (the only way out of the area) and meanwhile the contractors in Poland Street (who had been opening it from time to time but weren’t doing so then, despite the desperate need) went on merrily mixing cement and ignoring the mayhem.

Having repeatedly asked for assurances from Westminster City Council’s highways department that in just such a situation they would insist upon the reopening of Poland Street, and having been assured, I sent a frenzied email, but without result.  

The gridlock paralysed our entire section of Soho for the whole day, until the contractors finished work.

On Monday evening (by which time the crisis was over) I had a response. An official from the highways department had walked around the area at lunchtime on Friday, and had seen that the problem was being caused by Thames Water working in Beak Street (already badly impeding traffic) coupled with the clincher of a block affecting half its Regent Street exit. However, the contractors in Poland Street were carrying out “a concrete pour” and it wasn’t felt that this sacred ritual should be interrupted, let alone stopped. So the mass of vehicles was left in place all day.

I am fascinated to know how much more concrete is worth to Westminster City Council than human lives. On Monday morning, a police car and an ambulance sped to an accident at the Marshall Street end of Broadwick Street. 

If that accident had occurred on Friday no emergency vehicle could have reached the scene.

It wasn’t only the accident victim who was lucky on Monday, it was the council. 

But how long will their luck, and ours, hold?

Alida Baxter
Broadwick Street, W1