Letters: 'Ocado has ignored the concerns of local people'

Cllr Janet Burgess, Cllr Sheila Chapman and Cllr Kaya Comer-Schwartz - Junction ward and Cllr Tricia Clarke, Cllr Satnam Gill, and Cllr Gulcin Ozdemir - St George’s ward, write:

As the Islington Labour councillors for Junction and St George’s wards, we have stood with our local community to campaign against the proposed Ocado delivery hub in Tufnell Park throughout the past year and a half.

Ocado want to run a round-the-clock warehouse and distribution operation right next to the playground of Yerbury Primary school and the Whittington Park nature reserve. They continue to ignore the community’s legitimate concerns about the additional traffic, noise, light and air pollution that their operation would bring. They also refuse to acknowledge the evidence presented to them by experts about the damage to children’s health from air pollution, including particulate matter generated by electric vehicles. Ocado’s plans go against everything the council is doing to create a greener, cleaner, safer Islington.

Protest against Ocado's plans outside the High Court (Image: NOcado)

Throughout the process, Ocado has ignored the concerns of local people, ploughing on regardless and seeking to find legal loopholes to bypass the council’s planning process and avoid a full public consultation. Ocado’s recent ‘consultation’ is no different. The responses won’t be released publicly, nor will they be shown to the council or us ward councillors. Instead, Ocado will likely cherry-pick the answers they like and use this as ‘evidence’ for their case whilst harvesting the data of residents who do respond to use as part of their marketing strategy.

We joined the local community in refusing to engage with their ‘consultation’ and instead have continued to support our residents in their campaign. Ocado should know that we are not going to let up, we will continue to fight against their awful proposal, for the sake of Yerbury’s schoolchildren and the rest of our community.

Electric vehicles not the solution

Children from Yerbury Primary School protesting against Ocado's plans (Image: NOcado)

Anita Frizzarin, Wedmore Gardens, Islington, writes:

Our St George’s and Junction Labour councillors are right to say that Ocado “refuse to acknowledge the evidence presented to them by experts about the damage to children’s health from air pollution, including particulate matter generated by electric vehicles.”

As a resident of an adjacent street to the proposed Ocado site, I rely on our councillors to keep up their opposition to the giant depot, which would cause vehicular traffic day and night next to the Yerbury Primary School and in front of our windows. Particulate matter comes from tyres and brakes, whether the vehicle is electric or not. Massive amounts of energy and resources also go into making the vehicles, and that generates more pollution.

However, if our councillors know that a lot of pollution comes from electric vehicles, why is Islington Council filling the borough with electric charging points for precisely those vehicles?