Stop the multiple road closures! This vastly increases traffic congestion and delays and makes it extremely difficult to get to hospitals, offices, city centres and shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants, and it is unfair to people who do not have bikes or who do not want to walk for miles to get anywhere. Shops, clubs, restaurants, pubs and other businesses are already suffering due to Covid, and the closure of roads is the last straw.
Is the Mayor intent on making all businesses go out of business? We need our roads to be open for cars. Bikes have cycle lanes and these should be sufficient without them having to take over the entire road network. London will grind to a halt if the Mayor ensures that nobody can get to anything.
Gillian Michaels
Editor's reply
Dear Gillian
You make an interesting point about a delicate situation. Some pre-Covid worries seem to have been forgotten — if roads stay open, are we ignoring emissions? Still, businesses need any help they can get. Trevor Gulliver of St John has called on Sadiq Khan to scrap the congestion charge, supported by the likes of Michel Roux Jr, Tom Kerridge and Soho House man Nick Jones. Stopping cars, it seems, slows business. Still, London’s public transport is a blessing and on my commute, masks and hand-sanitising are being observed.
David Ellis, Going Out Editor
MPs who can’t represent us
The denial of parliamentary representation for constituents of ministers is a pressing issue. My MP in Barnet, Mike Freer, with an exemplary record in highlighting the neglect of the elderly, has twice had to inform me that he can’t raise PMQs on this burning subject. Constituents should be allowed direct access to ministers or, at the very least, to an alternative MP without the above constraints.
Trevor Lyttleton
