Demonstration by parents and children in Whittington Park

• IT is encouraging that Ocado are looking into the possibility of using electrically-powered delivery vans, following the campaign to block the building of a large Ocado depot in N19, (Ocado delivery depot ‘plans to go all electric’, January 24).

This apparent U-turn shouldn’t, however, distract from the many other negative aspects of this development which will impact strongly and destructively on the area.

This campaign so far has hinged – rightly – on the health dangers from diesel fumes on a site next-door to Yerbury Primary School playground.

However, the following issues also need to be kept at the forefront of the campaign:

1. Noise nuisance from 24-hour generators, ventilation fans, the coming and going of 100+ delivery fans, with delivery operations running from 5.30am to 11.30pm, and LGV deliveries at night will be intolerable in an area in which many houses – and the playground – are packed close to the site; not least on the other side of the adjacent railway tracks in Pemberton Gardens, which will bear the brunt of the inconvenience.

2. Floodlighting very close to residential housing, with rotating CCTV cameras invading neighbours’ privacy. Secondary air pollution from ventilation fans, will be directed away from the school – to avoid bad publicity – and towards (inevitably) other residential areas on the other side of the railway tracks.

3. Traffic congestion caused by large numbers of vans and LGV vehicles trying to get into the site along the relatively narrow Station Road via already crowded Junction Road (where there is a very difficult road junction).

4. Ocado’s “Zoom” one-hour delivery service is inherently environmentally unfriendly, causing pollution-heavy road congestion, even if the vans turn out to be electric.

All these issues come back to the fundamental unsuitability of the site.

This is a small industrial estate located in a densely populated, inner-city residential area and totally unsuitable for a development of this kind.

Ocado’s other London depots, in Park Royal and Earlsfield, are on very large industrial estates far from any residential streets. That is the sort of location this depot should be in, not bang in the middle of Tufnell Park.

MARK HUDSON
Address supplied