On Thursday 18 June, NOcado (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/nocado-campaign) NOcado's crowdfunding campaign has reached 75% funding with two days to go until it closes on Saturday 20th June. They are raising funds to continue their campaign to stop the damaging development of a distribution depot next to Yerbury Primary School in Archway, which will see diesel storage tanks, diesel vans and HGVs situated barely three metres from the school playground and nursery facilities - all in a densely-populated residential area of North London.
This depot will send fumes into the school playground damaging the children’s long-term health and education, and is an unprecedented location for a 24-hour facility like this, with a over a hundred vans coming and going every day, lorries loading and unloading day and night and hundreds of additional car and scooter visits for their new 1-hour service. That’s many thousands of polluting vehicle movements every week.
The air pollution and constant engine and generator noise will harm the health and education of around a thousand young children over the next decade, not to mention the well-being of residents in the surrounding streets.
Our evidence to Islington Council has prompted them to begin the revocation of the B8 certificate granted to the developers. The council says 'it appears that the information in the statutory declaration was false and that material information was withheld. Leading counsel has advised that on those facts the grant of the Certificate would not have been sustained.”
Support our campaign to raise the funds to stop this development - we have just two days left to reach our target. at Islington, London.
Islington Council has now questioned whether the site's delivery and distribution planning status is valid - and could be under threat as questions are raised over the planning categorisation granted to the site.
The food delivery giants have been under fire since December after plans emerged for a delivery hub in the Bush Industrial Estate, just metres from Yerbury Primary School. Parents and residents were particularly concerned about the environmental impact of a proposed diesel refuelling station on the site, as well as the safety implications of around 100 delivery vans making two trips a day from the site. Council leader Richard Watts and Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn have both spoken out against the plans.
Ocado has seen bumper sales under lockdown and is now raising £1b in bonds to expand. Their CEO received a huge payout at their AGM. In September M&S replace Waitrose as Ocado's UK food partner and have bought a 50% share in their UK business. It seems to be a great time for the tech-driven online grocer however we need to stop their plans to open delivery hubs in the middle of a school / residential area. This is unprecedented and in a site that is completely unsuitable for this.
Our spokewoman says “It is our view, shared by Islington Council, that Telereal should never have been issued the Lawful Certificate of Planning for this site. The result would be an intense 24-hour logistics depot, clogging up our streets with hundreds of deliveries a day. We have not seen any evidence that Ocado have withdrawn their application for diesel storage tanks on the site. Nor have they made any legally binding commitment to electrify it either. In addition, their proposal only cover the vans. No mention is made of the lorries, cars or scooters they would be using. This could result in thousands of additional journeys a week, if, as they have previously stated, they run their 1-hour Zoom service from the site. Our Nocado campaign has consistently stressed the concerns of the community, who have vocally opposed having a noisy and polluting depot built metres from Yerbury School playground. We know the damage this would cause to the health of our children, residents and local businesses. The council received over a thousand objections to Ocado’s plans. We will continue to demand answers from Ocado as to why they haven’t provided any environmental, traffic or noise impact assessments for their plans.”
NOcado is the campaign group opposing the construction of an Ocado distribution centre with next Yerbury Primary School. Our goals are to stop Ocado opening a distribution depot next to Yerbury school and to change planning law to stop this happening elsewhere.
• Our first petition had 3.5k signatures on change.org and our Zoom protests have both been attended by 100+ people from the local community.
• Over 1,000 people submitted objections to Islington Council. Our legal submission to Islington Council has been the basis for them initiating the revocation process for the planning certificate.
• Ocado is building a distribution centre next to school, with diesel tanks, diesel vans and HGVs situated barely three metres from the school playground and nursery facilities in a residential area of North London.
• Evidence proves there are serious negative impacts of diesel fumes on the physical and cognitive development of children. The links between with air pollution and covid19 are becoming clear too.
• Building works continued throughout lockdown and construction continues just as our children return to school, putting their health and education at risk.
• This site was never intended for this type of 24-hour facility. They should remain on larger industrial estates with proper access roads and far from schools and housing. We cannot let this set the precedent for delivery depots being built right next to our schools.