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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Helena Horton Environment reporter

Why has the ‘15-minute city’ taken off in Paris but become a controversial idea in the UK?

Carlos Moreno Paris Anne Hidalgo United Kingdom Channel
People walk in a park
Clichy-Batignolles in the north-west of Paris has been transformed with a quarter of the area taken up by green space and a new park. Photograph: Viennaslide/Alamy

The “15-minute city” has become a toxic phrase in the UK, so controversial that the city of Oxford has stopped using it and the transport minister has spread discredited conspiracy theories about the urban planning scheme.

But while fake news spreads about officials enacting “climate lockdowns” to “imprison” people in their neighbourhoods, across the Channel, Parisians are enjoying their new 15-minute neighbourhoods. The French are stereotyped for their love of protest, so the lack of uproar around the redesign of their capital is in stark contrast to the frenzied response in Oxford.

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