The ‘delivery arm’ of OPDC has been preparing a ‘Strategic Business Case’ for submission to Government. This will argue that the Development Corporation needs either a large chunk of infrastructure funding, or a free/subsidised transfer of public land from Network Rail and other bodies.
Such financial support from Government is needed if OPDC’s ambitious plans for a ‘transformed’ Old Oak are to make further headway.
The scenario is reminiscent of when OPDC bid for, and received conditional approval, for £250m of Housing Infrastructure Funding in September 2018. In the event, OPDC had later to relinquish these funds. Cargiant had opposed the OPDC plans for ‘Old Oak North’ and the Corporation was unable to meet the conditions set by Government.
This unhappy saga (which cost Londoners some £6-8m in abortive work) has been covered in previous posts.
This time round, we are asking for full transparency on OPDC’s new ‘business case’ from the moment it is submitted to Government. See our letter to David Lunts, CEO of OPDC, at this link OONF to OPDC DL 23rd December.
We think it essential that the Planning Inspector examining the Modified OPDC Draft Local Plan is fully aware of this document. Back in 2018/19 OPDC refused to publish information on their bid for Housing Infrastructure Funding, until forced to by a legal summons from the London Assembly.