'Let's hope it was not life-critical': Westminster councillor's footage shows an ambulance stopping at Sadiq Khan's new Oxford Street barriers

Critical Mass riders on Oxford Street, London, where TfL's own traffic cameras recorded penny-farthing riders, cargo bikes and wheelchair users joining Friday night's mass incursion.

A London Ambulance Service vehicle on Oxford Street, where the £150m pedestrianisation scheme introduced on 26 October bans all traffic except emergency vehicles.

Westminster City Council's deputy leader Timothy Barnes last week posted footage of an ambulance, blue lights flashing, halted at the barrier-controlled entrance to Oxford Street's newly pedestrianised zone, raising fears that padlocked barriers could cost lives if emergency crews are held up. Barnes says paramedics had to wait while marshals raised the barriers before the vehicle continued down Regent Street, calling the process 'slow and difficult'. TfL insists the crew had merely stopped to ask for directions and that emergency vehicles are free to pass through at any time.

Barnes says a second ambulance incident occurred the previous week, in which paramedics treating a woman on Oxford Street itself were similarly blocked from getting through.

The pedestrianisation scheme bars all traffic — buses and taxis included — from half a mile of Oxford Street; it came into force on October 26 at a cost of £150million.

London Ambulance Service says there have been no delays to its crews since the scheme began — but Barnes is pressing transport bosses to find an 'urgent solution'.

Daily Mail NewsFury as ambulance appears stuck behind barriers at Oxford Street's 'pedestrian-only' zone Daily MailVideo: Ambulance appears to be stuck behind the Oxford Street barriers - Daily Mail Evening Standard'Let's hope it was not life-critical': Moment ambulance 'wastes time' stopping at new Oxford Street barriers

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