London parents and grandparents are campaigning with activist group NOcado to stop online grocery service Ocado building an industrial depot next to a primary school.
The campaigners are calling on Ocado to revoke plans for the depot, as they are concerned about high levels of pollution around their children at Yerbury Primary School in Islington, North London.
Andy Grieve, an air pollution scientist at Imperial College, has two young children at the school.
He told MyLondon: “Islington Council must stand up for the health and education of generations of children to come and refuse this dangerous depot.”
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Another protester, 73-year-old retired grandad David Zell, joined the campaign this year.
He said: “The one thing that unifies us is the fact that we’re either parents, or in my case grandparents, of primary school kids at this particular school. Because the school is the issue – the school is the focus.”
David Zell (front left) with other campaigners at a Council planning committee meeting in Islington
Ocado is an online grocery service which has partnered with Marks and Spencer since September 2020.
Plans for Ocado’s depot came out in late 2019, revealing that it was to be built right adjacent to Yerbury School.
Yerbury parents quickly founded NOcado, a campaign group to try and stop the depot due to the high levels of pollution it would create at the school, calling to “save our children from a future of pollution and noise”.
Islington council revoked Ocado’s licence to build in 2020, but the dispute has continued ever since.
Parents and children at the primary school have been holding protests against the delivery giant for 2 years
(Image: NOcado)
Now, Ocado has applied for another certificate of lawfulness to continue with the build, called a Certificate of Lawful Existing Use or Development (CLUED) – a kind of application that doesn’t require the typical planning process.
David said: “Consultation is part of the normal planning process, which Ocado never did.
“And the reason they didn’t do it is crystal clear – when you put in a full planning application, you have to produce impact statements on pollution, on traffic, on noise, on lighting aspects.”
Studies have found that diesel emissions are linked to asthma, reduced lung function and cognitive impairment in children.
Ocado previously partnered with Waitrose before Marks and Spencer
(Image: NOcado)
The grandad-of-two said that Ocado has made a number of claims about its depot which he doesn’t believe are true.
He said: “We’ve been over their evidence with our lawyers and put it this way, it’s doubtful.”
“The main arguments are that it’s going to create jobs locally,” he explained, “and that it will use 100 per cent electric vehicles.
“But Ocado is in the business of high tech and automation. And those 250 jobs are only going to be as long as they continue to automate.
Parents are concerned that the depot poses a health risk to children at the primary school
(Image: NOcado)
“And we know that they’ve only got so far 17 electric vans in their whole fleet of literally hundreds across the country.”
NOcado are continuing to fight for their ‘children’s right to clean air’. Find their page here .
A spokesperson for Ocado said: “Our proposals for the Bush Industrial Estate are to build the greenest and quietest grocery facility in the UK with a 100 per cent electric van fleet, while creating 250 jobs for the local economy.
“We remain committed to the Islington community, where we delivered to one in six households in 2020.
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“We will continue to look at how we can deliver an even better service to the borough while also significantly reducing our emissions.”
MyLondon contacted Marks and Spencer for comment but they did not respond by the time of publication.
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