The former gin factory in Goswell Road which has recently been converted into a new ‘data centre’

IT’S been 30 years of hurt for neighbours of an old factory, as they told this week how diesel fumes have left them with nausea and headaches.

Fed-up residents in Peregrine House – off the City Road – now want action over the pollution outside their windows coming from a former gin factory in Goswell Road which was recently converted into a “data centre”.

Objectors say that for three decades they have been left gasping by the generators used on the site and that environmental rules must be brought in to protect them.

Dianne Coles, 77, said: “It stinks the whole flat out. I keep my kitchen windows permanently shut. It is a vile heavy diesel smell. There have been times when you’ve walked out into the street and it is in the atmosphere.”

Under the Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD) rules, standby generators will not be regulated until 2029. Until then, there are no limits on what can be termed as “emergency usage” of these back-up generators.

Islington South MP Emily Thornberry said this week she has written to the government urging them to bring forward the date for regulating emissions – a move she said would empower the council to intervene.

Islington South MP Emily Thornberry

“I do understand that Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] has shown some commitment to improving the enforce­ment of environmental regulations,” she said in her letter.

“I hope that you will sympathise with residents of Peregrine House and consider the damage caused by standby generator emissions, particularly in such densely populated areas.”

Ms Coles, who has lived in the block for 20 years, added: “I would like to see the whole thing shut down and moved to a non-residential area.

“This is an extremely highly populated area. They must have known these problems would exist. The other issue is the noise. It is an absolute nightmare. You cannot hear yourself think, you can barely hear the TV and you have to have your windows shut. The whole place should be re-sited.

“During the first lockdown life in this block of flats was intolerable. They had angle grinders and the noises were operating right outside our windows. It got to the point I was practically suicidal and my daughter took me out to the countryside for a break.”

Peregrine House ­resident Kim, 59, who did not want her surname published, said: “When they do run these ­chimneys I have to run around closing all the windows. It gives me headaches and makes me feel sick.

“When you’re going out you can smell it from the ground floor as well. It is basically like car exhaust fumes. It’s like HGV [heavy goods ­vehicle] engine exhaust pipes. The smell is ­horrendous.”

She added: “Sometimes you get black smoke as well. My windows face this place and sometimes you can be out of work and they switch them on and your house stinks. The fact that it gives you headaches and makes you feel sick shows how bad it is for you.

“It’s so debilitating – they are basically driving me out of my home. I get so agitated. It is quite depressing. It can be a really hot day and you want your windows open because of the awful smell but you know you will get a headache and feel sick.

“If you leave your house, you have to go far away because otherwise you will smell it.”

The site was recently taken over by the Lumen London data centre, which could not be reached for comment this week.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We know the impact air pollution has on communities around the UK, which is why we are stepping up the pace and taking urgent action to improve air quality.

“Our Clean Air Strategy will improve air quality through measures like the Medium Combustion Plant Directive, which will consider the case for tighter standards on generators. The implementation of this legislation will help us determine whether to introduce further measures.”