Blow to Old Oak Common plan as 6,000 homes have to be cut

Regeneration: the proposed development, Old Oak Park, had initially been forecast to create 25,500 homes
Old Oak Park Ltd

The ambitious blueprint for transforming sprawling railway and industrial lands at Old Oak Common into a gleaming “Canary Wharf of the West” has been dealt another setback.

A planning inspector has recommended that part of the 650-acre site occupied by second-hand car supermarket Cargiant should be removed from the regeneration — in a move that will limit the number of homes that can be built for the forseeable future.

In an interim report this week the inspector, Paul Clark, said: “Cargiant is a highly successful and profitable business with prospects for growth.

“Its extinction simply does not make sense in planning terms, nor does its relocation at an expense which would preclude the likelihood of paying for any contribution to necessary infrastructure or affordable housing.”

A computer generated image of part of the planned development
Old Oak Park Ltd

Former mayor Boris Johnson set up the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) in April 2015 to act as the planning authority responsible for regenerating the site, which straddles three boroughs: Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing and Brent.

OPDC has been at loggerheads with Cargiant since the dealership scrapped plans to move off its 46-acre site south of Willesden Junction, where it employs 800 people, in 2017. OPDC had planned to redevelop the site, with a 6,500-home canalside town called Old Oak Park.

The inspector said stripping the Cargiant land from the plan would cut the number of homes that can be delivered from 20,100 to 14,200, and the predicted number of jobs created from 40,400 to 37,590. The original plan had forecast 25,500 homes and 65,000 jobs.

Previous setbacks for the masterplan have included having to scrap proposals to build over a depot for Crossrail trains, and delays to the construction of the HS2 rail line. In 2016 Sadiq Khan ordered a review of the plans.

After the inspector’s decision, Cargiant’s Geoff Warren said: “The OPDC has overseen a scandalous waste of money in the pursuit of a flawed development strategy, despite us shouting from the rooftops that what they were planning could never be delivered.”

Calling for an independent review into OPDC’s spending and strategy, he added: “The Mayor of London and the leadership of the OPDC have continued to quote figures of 25,500 homes and 65,000 jobs deliverable at Old Oak, which have been shown to be completely wrong.”

David Lunts, chief executive of OPDC, said the inspector’s decision was “not entirely unexpected … We will of course continue to work closely with the inspector, Cargiant and other landowners to see our local plan through to adoption.”

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