CAMPAIGNERS say they will not back down no matter how many times a retail giant tries to win permission for a new depot close to a primary school.

Ocado are now appealing to the planning inspectorate over its rejected plans for the Bush Industrial Estate.

Neighbours, including parents at Yerbury Primary School in Foxham Road and the NOcado campaign group, have successfully demonstrated against the proposals over several years and the company has lost attempts to secure planning approval at the council and in the High Court. Islington blocked the company’s latest appeal in March, leading to yet another stage which will unfold later this year when the government’s planning inspectorate reaches a verdict.

NOcado’s Fenella Grey said the group had spent £70,000 on legal fees over the last three and a half years and last week they launched another drive to raise £17,000 to challenge Ocado’s latest bid.

She said: “We are really tired, really exhausted. Really drained, but equally, that’s entirely their strategy. You know, they’ve got unlimited resources, and incredibly big, powerful corporate lawyers behind them. And their strategy – to keep going, keep going until it wears us all down – but we’re not going anywhere.”

A spokesman for Ocado said it remained “committed to having a positive impact on the local community” and has pledged to use electric vans at the site.

The company argues that the industrial estate next to the school was previously used for a similar purpose between 1992 and 2002 – and that permission should therefore be granted for it to be used in that way again, without the need for planning permission.

Ms Grey queried whether the company would follow through on its pledge to use electric vans, as currently just one per cent of its fleet is electrified.

She and other members of the group will attend the House of Commons next month to call on politicians to change the law to make it impossible for depots to be built within 400m of a school, publicly used building or residential housing.