Extracts from a letter replying to Westminster City Council leader Nickie Aiken from the residents of Brendon Street, Marylebone, who have been opposing plans for a cycle Quietway in an area between Edgware Road and Fitzrovia

• WESTMINSTER accepted that Brendon Street had reached a tipping point with regard to traffic long ago… confirmed… to the residents as long ago as 2011 and [it] undertook to investigate street improvements then.

None has been forthcoming. We have been living with a situation Westminster has already acknowledged is unsustainable since then.

Now, rather than having our street improved we face increased traffic as a result of these new cycleway proposals.

We were momentarily heartened when your official promised us street improvements in 2018, the intention being to lift some of the burden on our street to compensate for the new traffic flow, but this also has not materialised.

Two amendments you note as beneficial to the residents in fact do absolutely nothing to improve the situation on Brendon Street…

The fact that these are now being put to us as evidence of Westminster’s listening and responsive approach has… alienated residents still further.

Your letter also does not address the issues we raised of pollution (we would like to see baseline pollution monitoring and ongoing levels, shared with residents), or the safety considerations particularly with regard to pedestrians (including children accessing the local schools) or… blind bend which HGVs will have to navigate.

We remain keen to discuss a series of compromise solutions to this problem but this will require a meeting taking place with the relevant decision-makers and with Westminster being prepared to find a way forward which will materially improve matters for residents.

We look forward to meeting the council to find ways to deliver the improvements the council has already promised.

CHARLOTTE THORNE
and 16 other signatories