About the Forum. We are a neighbourhood forum designated by OPDC in 2017 and redesignated in 2022. We hold meetings via Zoom each month, open to all our members. Our regular slot is at 6.30pm on the first Thursday of each month, for an hour or so. The Zoom link is circulated a few days in advance.
Our next Zoom meeting will by at 6.30pm Thursday 4th September (we are not meeting in August). Slides from our July meeting are now posted on this site.
Timelines for the completion of Old Oak Common station, and the start of HS2 services from Birmingham to Old Oak, remain uncertain. The HS2 projct is undergoing a ‘comprehensive reset’ the outcome of which is not due to be announced until early 2026.
Media reports have been giving an opening date of 2039 for the opening of the Birmingham to Old Oak HS2 line. This means that Old Oak Common station and its Elizabeth Line platforms may not be operational until that date, 13 years after the original planned date of 2026.
The June 2025 Spending Review allocated a further £25.3bn to the budget for HS2 in order to keep up with escalating costs. Continuation of the line from Old Oak to Euston was also confirmed. Work on the tunnels from Old Oak Common station to Euston have been deferred to 2026. Plans for a Euston HS2 terminus have yet to be finalised and the costs of a terminus remain dependent on private funding.
Meanwhile OPDC has been acquiring sites in the area around the planned station, and is seeking develop partners interested in investing on these sites and those held by the Department for Transport as HS2 construction compounds.
The OPDC Board on July 10th agreed to progress its new ‘illustrative masterplan’ to the stage of entering in to a joint venture with a master developer/joint venture partner. A Compulsory Purchase Order is being finalised for piece of land which OPDC wish to acquire as part of its masterplan proposals.
Our Forum questions why OPDC consider that this next stage must be progressed ‘at pace’ rather than pausing to await decisions on the HS2 reset. In particular we think OPDC should await a Department for Transport analysis of whether the Elizabeth Line platforms at OOC station could come into use before HS2 is operational. Without access to the Elizabeth Line, or other transport improvements, parts of the masterplan area is not suitable for high-density car-free housing.
The OPDC Board at its July 10th meeting agreed to proposals for a permanent OPDC Residents Panel. This is a welcome step we we have been pursuing for many months. More details will be posted shortly.
Please email to oonforum@gmail.com to join our mailing/membership list. PDFs of the slides used at our meetings can be downloaded from this page on this website. You are welcome to join the Forum if you live or work in (or near) the area of north-west London for which the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation has been the local planning authority since 2015. Membership of the Forum is free and open to all.