Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation
Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation
On 1 April 2015, the Mayor of London exercised his powers to establish Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC). As a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), just like the London Legacy Development Corporation is for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, OPDC aims to capitalise on: the ‘transport super-hub’ development of HS2 and Crossrail; the transformative change of Old Oak; the regeneration of Park Royal; and the continued protection and enhancement of Wormwood Scrubs, with its ultimate goal being to secure maximum benefits for the local area, its people and businesses.
The driving force behind this is the Mayor of London’s master vision to retain the capital’s position as the world’s best city and to address London’s growing housing, employment, economic and social needs.
OPDC is independent, accountable and impartial and can leverage its status to work collaboratively with residents, businesses, stakeholders, partners, government, functional bodies and the private sector to unlock resources and funding to secure maximum benefits for the area, its people, businesses and London.
The OPDC Team invites local residents and businesses to work with them on realising the potential of this special site – the only place where HS2 meets Crossrail – to create a new, exemplar, competitive, thriving and sustainable part of London where people will love to live, work and play, time and time again. Early work has identified the delivery of 25,500 new homes and 65,000 new jobs, of which 1,500 new homes and 10,000 new jobs will be in Park Royal.
OPDC priorities
Since it launched on 1 April 2015, OPDC has articulated its most important priorities:
1. Establish a sound and solid planning framework to give certainly to businesses and residents (existing and future)
2. Secure funding and finance to bring forward infrastructure across social, health, transport, access and utility needs
3. Gain control and influence over land in order to de-risk it, make it attractive for investment and to realise the potential for delivering jobs and homes
The planning framework
To address point 1, the OPDC Team delivered an Opportunity Area Planning Framework, which the Mayor adopted in October 2015. Since then, OPDC further articulated its delivery plan through the draft Local Plan, which underwent phase 1 public consultation in early 2016. The phase 2 public consultation of the updated draft Local Plan is expected to take place in early 2017.
As well as working closely with government before, during and after two major events 1) London Mayoral election (May 2016) and 2) HS2 Bill (December 2016), the team will encourage Park Royal Businesses to help review and develop this strategy for adoption in 2017 so that business needs are reflected and accounted for in the final version.
It is the ambition of the OPDC to use the final strategy to meet key business needs by delivering select early intervention (pilot) programmes, which is why it is of utmost important for local business and resident groups to consult and help articulate the strategy.
Papers
You can view papers from past Board meetings and Consultations, or read more about the OPDC here London.gov.uk/opdc.
Community Engagement
OPDC’s engagement team are committed to ensuring the local communities get involved in the future plans for the area.
A key element of their role is to raise awareness about the project, as it is the largest regeneration and development scheme in the UK, with the space and capacity to create 25,500 new homes and 65,000 jobs.
The broad outline of the team’s responsibilities include:
As well as supporting the wider OPDC team and working with a wide range of communities, they are also working on plans to hold exciting local events throughout the year.
The ambition is to give the community increased opportunities to hear about OPDC and find out what is happening in the Old Oak and Park Royal area.
Meet the engagement team
OPDC team members are based at The Collective Old Oak several days a week. If you would like to find out more about consultations, local events or future plans then please contact us directly. Please note that due to the team being ‘out and about’ on a regular basis you will need to make an appointment to visit the team so we can plan ahead.
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