Closed
Access to Langham St denied by the BBC
Reported in the Safety fences and barriers category anonymously at 16:59, Wed 2 September 2020 using FixMyStreet Pro
Sent to Westminster City Council less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 2275505.
I am writing to express my deep concern at an experience I had this afternoon with the BBC.
I was walking from Hallam Street (coming from New Cavendish Street) to Regent’s Street, at about 2:00 PM this afternoon, and was going to go along Langham Street to do so. However, there were barriers preventing access to Langham Street where I would normally turn right from Hallam St. The private security guard manning the barrier told me that only BBC employees with passes could go beyond the barrier. I objected to this pointing out that Langham St was a public thoroughfare and that it was not the BBC’s private property where members of the public could be banned. The security guard then called over a supervisor to whom I repeated my assertion that it was a public thoroughfare that I had used for some 40 years, whereupon he told me that the BBC had the authority to close the street off whenever it chose and that was by agreement with Westminster Council.
I find this hard to believe although I have noticed that ever since the BBC expanded Broadcasting House and built over Langham St, they have increasingly tended to treat the street as their private courtyard. I have certainly been inconvenienced many times before where they had crowd control barriers in place due to some event with pop starts or other celebrities but this was the first time I had been prevented from actually using the road.
I cannot believe that Westminster has given the BBC carte blanche to close the road off at will and I would like an explanation for what happened. If the BBC was acting without authority in preventing me from using the road I want to know what happens now. If they do indeed have authority to close the road off at will I would like to know so that I can challenge that. I am convinced that the BBC wants to deny public access to that stretch of Langham St and turn it into their private courtyard and Westminster cannot be aiding and abetting that.
I look forward to clarification on all the points I have raised above.
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