Young ‘Nocado’ protesters in action earlier this year

• ISLINGTON Council’s planners face a momentous decision whether to reverse a controversial go-ahead that will allow online grocer Ocado to build a massively disruptive depot right next to a school playground in a densely populated area of the borough.

It’s a decision that raises a raft of difficult questions.

Should Islington follow the letter of the law and thereby defend the local community, including primary-age children and the vulnerable and elderly?

Or should it turn a blind-eye to the shortcomings of the original “change-of-use” application, and do a favour to powerful corporate forces who have made billions from the current pandemic?

For the benefit of those who haven’t been following this hotly-contested issue, Ocado and their new partners Marks & Spencer intend to open their depot on a small site on the tiny Bush Industrial Estate in Tufnell Park.

The original planning permission for the site, granted in 1983, stated that the site should be used for “light industrial purposes” only and not for “warehousing”, in line with Islington Council’s policy that “storage and distribution” should not be located in residential areas.

However Ocado and Telereal, the company that owns the site, argued that the site had been used for storage and distribution for 10 years, allowing for a change in status for the site, thereby green-lighting the depot which carries huge implications for the community in terms of air pollution, noise nuisance, traffic congestion and threats to existing businesses.

Community group Nocado have mounted a vigorous campaign against the development, producing a 154-page document demonstrating that much of the evidence in Telereal’s “change-of-use” application was factually inaccurate.

For much of the 10 years in question, the site had actually been empty.

Responses from the Islington planning department suggest they intend to revoke – reversing the decision that has permitted this divisive development. They now face a tight time frame in which to do this.

Fortunately for them, while the technical detail of the case is complex and nit-picky, the essential legal and – dare I say it – moral issues are pretty clear-cut.

The original change-of-use application was not legally tenable.

And if this depot goes ahead it will seriously compromise the physical and mental wellbeing both of children in the adjacent Yerbury Primary School, who will be attempting to learn with hundreds of delivery vehicles coming and going 24/7; and of hundreds of residents in neighbouring streets  such as Wedmore Gardens, where some bedrooms are located barely a metre from the site boundary.

Ocado’s original intention was to put diesel pumps just metres from the school fence. While they now claim that their delivery fleet will be fully electrified, these professions of good intent are not legally binding and take no account of the large numbers of HGV deliveries, staff cars and motor-cycles delivering the company’s one-hour Zoom service.

Noise nuisance and increased traffic will be horrific at a time when the council is promising cleaner and safer streets.

Ocado and their landlords have gone on building throughout the lockdown, thinking they can force this development through, exploiting loopholes in the law backed by top lawyers and planning consultants.

It’s high time Islington called a halt, reversed their original decision and put paid to this misconceived and exploitative development for good.

MARK HUDSON
Address supplied