Demonstration by parents and children in Whittington Park

• BY choosing to locate their new diesel distribution depot in such an unsuitable location Ocado are showing that they will ride roughshod over our community rather than working with us, (Parents: ‘Deliver online supermarket hub somewhere else’, December 20, 2019).

We are seeing a change of shopping habits to home delivery and I understand that distribution centres are an important part of the running of a city. However, placing a depot of this size and polluting nature in this location is morally wrong and environmentally irresponsible.

Inner-city depots should be smaller, serviced by electric vans bringing food in, and onward distribution should be via e-assist cargo bike or electric cargo scooter. This is an issue which is going to affect many people in the coming years.

Ocado plan 30 to 40 outdated diesel-based distribution centres like this which are more suited to a motorway location on the outskirts of urban areas away from children’s developing lungs, brains and hearts.

No planning authority would give permission for a school or nursery to be built next door to a large diesel hub; but apparently there are few controls to prevent one being built next to a school which has been established for over 100 years.

This road-danger-worsening, fossil-fuelled dinosaur depot has no place in a densely populated area, no place next door to a state primary school, a nursery and one of Islington’s few green spaces and no place in a climate and air pollution emergency.

NATASHA COX
Islington Green Party