Westminster Council Turns Down Reagan Statue

According to the Atticus column in yesterday's Sunday Times, Westminster Council has turned down an application to erect a statue of Ronald Reagan outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

Plans to put a bronze statue of Ronald Reagan outside the American embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, have been rejected. Westminster council says figures must have been dead for 10 years before they qualify for a public monument (although the Americans might have noticed a statue in Parliament Square of Nelson Mandela, who is still very much with us). Perhaps they could put the former US president there too. It would remind our MPs of Reagan’s driving political dictum – that too much government is bad government. They might even add his famous advice to officials: “Don’t just do something, stand there.”

Parking Meters Celebrate 50 Years

Parking Meters are celebrating their 50th anniversary in Mayfair with a special display of old meters in Grosvenor Square. Invented in the US in 1935, coin slot parking meters first made their presence felt in Mayfair in 1958.

In 2007, Westminster Council replaced the coin based meters with new a new cashless system.

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Bond Street To Benefit From Makeover

Westminster City Council has announced a £40 scheme to give the capital's premier shopping streets - Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street - a makeover in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Pavements will be widened, new lighting and signage will be installed and some street furniture will be removed to make it less cluttered. Barriers will be removed from the Oxford Street / Regent Street junction to make it crossing much easier when traffic is halted at the lights. Westminster council decided against Mayor Livingstone's preferred option - total pedestrianisation, with a complementing tram service.

The project will be funded by TFL, Westminster Council and the New West End Company.