Too bad: locals need to live with new developments

ON Monday, a group of residents in north London secured a major victory: The “Nocado” campaign ended its years-long battle with grocery delivery business Ocado, who wanted to open a distribution centre next to a primary school in Tufnell Park.

- Simon Hunt

The group argued the warehouse was inappropriate for the area and warned on the air quality impact on schoolchildren from diesel vans whizzing around near the playground.

The campaign attracted the support of local MP, Jeremy Corbyn, as well as the planning authority, who ruled in their favour — and Ocado conceded it must find somewhere else to go.

I don’t wish to rehearse Nocado’s (or Ocado’s) arguments — but I struggle to see what was so bad about the plans. The distribution centre would have been in a pre-existing industrial park full of warehouses, next to a railway line and a Royal Mail depot — it would not have looked wildly out of place.