Elegant roads need more than good intentions

Who could not want London's public spaces, our streets and squares, to be more beautiful, pleasant and user-friendly?

Who could resist the idea of making the running sore of Oxford Street as elegant as the Champs-Elysées, or creating a version of Barcelona's La Rambla in every borough?

Neither this Mayor, for one, nor his predecessor. Ken Livingstone once grandly spoke of creating a hundred new public spaces. Boris, in keeping with his commitment to a bottom-up approach, is inviting proposals from the boroughs, the best of which he will then support.

Actually getting anything done is another story. Public space involves keeping myriad constituencies happy. Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers all have to be placated, as do the people in charge of buses, borough councils, the police and residents.

Seemingly small details can almost kill a project, as the would-be improvers of Exhibition Road discovered, when residents rebelled against the prospective loss of parking places.

It takes drive and tact to get projects through. And, while everyone professes to love public space, local authorities rarely love it enough to put money into transformations.

For these reasons Ken's attempt on a century of spaces floundered in single figures. Boris's plan of encouraging ideas rather than imposing them from on high is sensible but it will take a lot of shoving and some cash to make anything happen. The £200,000 so far announced is a tiny sum and one hopes Boris knows where the millions needed will come from.

He would also do well to remember that it is the little things that usually make most difference to the enjoyment of places, such as choice of lighting.

But the beautification of public spaces remains a noble aim. It makes people feel better, and encourages the chance encounters that are the essence of city life. So the Mayor's intentions are good, if only he has some way of converting them into reality.