The Old Oak Neighbourhood Forum is currently looking back at a critical period in the history of the OPDC and its plans for regeneration at Old Oak.
This period was the second half of 2018. At this time Cargiant and their development partner London and Regional Properties had been consulting on a fourth iteration of their masterplan for ‘Old Oak Park’. This proposed development had been worked up over the preceding years, for the 46 acre landholding at Hythe Road W10 on which Cargiant has built its business.
This was the the ‘Place’ which OPDC badged as Old Oak North in its first Draft Local Plan. The area was destined to include a new Overground station, connecting to the planned Old Oak Common rail interchange. A new ‘high street’ with retail and commercial floorspace was to bridge across the Grand Union canal, and east west road connections were to improve connectivity in the Old Oak part of the Opportunity Area.
In 2017 OPDC engaged a consortium of consultants led by AECOM to prepare its own masterplan for Old Oak North. Relationships between OPDC and Cargiaant became difficult. In September 2018 Cargiant’s owner wrote to OPDC to say that the company was withdrawing its support for OPDC’s bid for Housing Infrastructure Funding, abandoning its plans for ‘Old Oak Park’ and wished to stay on its existing 45 acre site.
Lack of transparency by OPDC about the existence of this letter from Cargiant led to a year in which OPDC continued with its plans for Old Oak North. Only at a session of the Local Plan Examination in July 2019 did the extent of the gulf in the thinking of OPDC and Cargiant become fully clear.
Q&A sessions of the London Assembly and its Budget and Performance Committee at this time also began to expose the problems ahead, in respect of OPDC’s Local Plan proposals for Old Oak North.
After a highly critical report from the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee published in January 2021, OPDC posted in its website much of the documentation relating to its failed bid for HIF funding.
What did not appear on the OPDC website were the letters, press releases and briefing notes from Cargiant, setting out its own position in that critical period. OONF has gathered these together, as they throw light on a period in the history of the OPDC when (in our view) things began to go wrong for OPDC.
We are preparing a paper on this subject which will be sent to London Assembly Members in due course and after the May 2nd 2024 Mayoral and GLA elections.
Meanwhile the Cargiant material is available at the links below. This includes the letter from Cargiant’s Geoff Warren to OPDC interim chief executive Mick Mulhern of 18th September 2018. This has been obtained recently by OONF in response to a FoI request and has not previously been available to the public (to our knowledge).
OPDC letter March 2024 releasing Sept 2018 Cargiant letter
Cargiant Geoff Warren to OPDC Mick Mulhern 18 Sept 2018 on HIF bid
4th consultation by Cargiant on Old Oak Park masterplan 2016
Cargiant.BriefingSheet.Feb2019
Cargiant to OPDC Board re HIF bid 7 Feb 2019
Letter from Cargiant to OPDC Board May 30th 2019
Letter from Cargiant to London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee June 14th 2019
Essential Questions for the London Assembly to ask the OPDC July 2019
PressStatement from Cargiant 19 July 2019
Cargiant press release Sept 2019
Cargiant to Mayor of London Feb 2020
Letter from Cargiant to Secretary of State 5 May 2020