About the Forum: We are a neighbourhood forum designated by OPDC in 2018 and redesignated in 2023. We hold meetings via Zoom each month, open to all our members. Our next session will be on Thursday 5th February at 6.30pm.
The Zoom link and agenda will be circulated a few days in advance.
Slides from our January 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 project is undergoing a ‘comprehensive reset’ the outcome of which is not due to be announced until early 2026.
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 November 20th endorsed the Development Corporation’s latest ‘Masterplan Framework’. The area covered lies between Willesden Junction station and North Acton station.
Copies of the Masterplan Framework (suject to final changes) are now available for download from the OPDC website. The 200 page document shows images and diagrams which are described as ‘illustrative’. At the same time, the document states ‘All detailed development proposals
within the Old Oak area are expected to take account of the vision, principles and guidance set out in the Masterplan‘.
Our Forum qestions the legitimacy of this approach when the Masterplan Framework has not been prepared, consulted on or ‘examined’ and is not a ‘development plan document’. It proposals involve many variations from the 2022 OPDC Local Plan.
We also do not accept many of the claims in the document about ‘good connectivity’ in the Masterplan area. Apart from locations close to Willesden Junction or North Acton station, many development sites in this newly defined Old Oak area have relatively poor levels of access to public transport.
Without access to the Elizabeth Line, or other transport improvements, a number of sites within the Masterplan are seriously unsuitable for high-density car-free housing. The Forum does not want a repeat of the development at Oaklands Rise, built on the promise of Old Oak Common station opening this year (2026). It will be 10-15 years yet before this rail interchange is operational.
These differences of view with OPDC are being discussed at the OPDC Residents Panel. Our neighbourhood forum is one of eight local organisations with representatives on this Panel, set up in September 2025. More information about the panel can be viewed on the OPDC website.
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.