![Audience at OPDC Community event](/sites/default/files/styles/hero_image_sm/public/opdc_community_event_1_0.jpg?h=d167ce02&itok=A0Z7Q61b)
Keeping the local community informed on the draft Local Plan
As a Mayoral Development Corporation, we want to try and make sure the local community have the opportunity to be kept informed on the Local Plan as the project progresses.
With this in mind, the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) Planning Team were keen to hold a community event, to update those interested and those previously involved in the consultation for the UK’s largest regeneration project in Old Oak and Park Royal, west London.
With almost 50 community members present on the night, the Planning Team explained that over the last eight months they’ve been busy reading, processing and sorting through the feedback submitted during the consultation on the draft Local Plan, which began on 4 February and finished on 31 March 2016. The draft Local Plan activity consisted of:
- 11 workshops in the area
- 6 exhibitions
- 29,000 views of the online engagement platform
- 2 Live Twitter Q&A sessions
In total, this activity led to 7,000 individual comments and provided 2,300 issues, which the Planning Team then categorised into seven key themes:
- Delivering a range of housing types and tenures
- Building at super densities
- Environmental challenges (integrated utilities, daylight/sunlight)
- Connecting to the wider area and open space
- Releasing more industrial land
- Impacts on the transport network
- Infrastructure delivery and timing
The Planning Team have been focussing their efforts over the summer on addressing these key themes in greater detail and this work has gone on to inform the next Local Plan, known technically as Regulation 19. It is expected to be published in March 2017 for public consultation and will act as the overarching planning document for the whole 650 hectare site.
Tom Cardis, Head of Planning Policy, spoke about additional papers, known as Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), some of which will be published at the same time as the Local Plan in March 2017.
These focussed documents will provide detailed guidance for future development. OPDC currently proposes five SPDs of which three would be place specific covering Scrubs Lane, Victoria Road, Park Royal and two would be topic specific covering Section 106 and Public Realm.
The next part of the presentation elaborated on the Spatial Vision, which was described as a sort of ‘tag line’ for the whole Local Plan and was part of the first draft Local Plan. The Spatial Vision feedback, made during that consultation, has been woven into the updated version as OPDC wants the development and regeneration to integrate both the existing and future communities together.
The planners described how the Spatial Vision needs to balance both the local community nature of the place being created in Old Oak, with the national character of being a transport super hub with a High Speed 2 (HS2) and Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) station. This has been interpreted in the vision as one overarching theme with two ‘narratives’: Going Local and Thinking Big.
This new three part spatial vision is the golden thread running throughout the Local Plan and has been used to create a distinct and clear link into a new section, Strategic Policies. These polices will provide the high level direction that OPDC wants the regeneration and development to aspire to and achieve. There are nine strategic policies in total:
- City in the west
- Excellence and innovation
- Thriving communities
- Resilient economy
- Places and destinations
- Connecting people and places
- Green and blue infrastructure
- Built environment
- Integrated delivery
These Strategic Policies have been created from the March 2016 consultation feedback and are further supported with over 50 evidence base research findings carried out as part of the planning process. They will form an integral role within Regulation 19 Local Plan and contain high level, less technical, information but set out clear parameters which must be adhered to.
The evening was incredibly informational and engaging, with almost 60 slides and over 20 questions asked from the community.
You can view all the slides from the presentation and if you would like to be informed of future events, including the second Local Plan Update, which will focus on explaining the differences with the Regulation 19 Local Plan you can sign up to receive our newsletter.