Westminster Council Tax: £160m gap, survey shuts 30 Sept

Almost nobody says they live in Westminster. They say Marylebone, Pimlico, Bayswater, Paddington, St John’s Wood, Belgravia, Soho or Queen’s Park. The word means Parliament and the Abbey to the rest of the country, and a council to the people who live under it.

That council is worth paying attention to. It runs controlled parking zones and permits across nearly the whole borough, licenses the West End, and works through a planning caseload in which most buildings are listed or in a conservation area. All of it is published. We read it and write down what it says, with a link to the document on every fact.

The pages people use most

• Westminster planning: from 10 August the Oxford Street Development Corporation, not the council, decides planning applications on Oxford Street, and the new City Plan consultation is open until 11 December.
• Westminster house prices: the borough average fell 22.8% in a year, but the typical sale was £805,000 and 86% of them were flats. Postcode by postcode.
• Roadworks and travel: what is dug up now, the carnival closures, the £18 congestion charge and what an hour of parking costs in each of the seven zones.
• Tube and train times: £3.10 a trip in Zone 1, £8.90 a day, and journey times from Maida Vale, Pimlico and Paddington.
• Things to do in Westminster: verified prices, including the Abbey at £27.13 until 1 September and three of the best things here for nothing.

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Every fact is linked to the official source it came from.