Fears Of 'Chiswick Clogged With Green Lorries' By New Ocado Service

National launch of a one hour delivery service to be from local depot

Concern is being raised about the traffic impact on the Chiswick area of a new fast delivery service being launched by Ocado.

They plan to set up the new Ocado Zoom service from the North Chiswick Business Park on Stirling Road and it is feared that this could lead to a significant increase in the number of vans and lorries on local roads.

A spokesperson for Ocado told us, “We will launch Ocado Zoom soon, a new service designed to deliver a range of more than 10,000 products to customers in under an hour, or within a selected time slot later that same day. We want to make customers’ lives easier by delivering dinner, essentials, or even a weekly shop directly to their homes on demand. Ocado Zoom will be available to a selection of West London postcodes from 7-11pm. This will operate from our Chiswick facility. “

The company say that the existing Ocado delivery system will not use the Chiswick site and they won’t be storing vans at the site as the limited number of parking spaces are already taken up by staff.

Ocado submitted an application to Ealing Council last year for the warehouse to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the North Chiswick Business Park. The site is located just behind the recycling facility on Stirling Road and occupies three units in the industrial development.

The company had hailed its warehouse in Andover “the most efficient warehouse logistics solution ever designed” and it is believed the original intention was to supply Chiswick from this location. The warehouse spanned an area equal to three football pitches and was mainly staffed by robots who travel at very fast speeds but was destroyed by a major fire earlier this month. It is now expected that the Chiswick facility will be supplied from a depot in Erith in South East London.

Blaze destroyed Ocado's Andover depot

Ocado declined to give an estimate of the number of vehicle movements the warehouse was likely to generate and the level of late night activity at the site.

The new Ocado Zoom service which promises delivery in one hour is reported to be ultimately provided by a company called Stuart Delivery which is a unit of the French mail provider La Poste. Up until now Ocado have not contracted out their delivery services so this is a departure for the company.

One resident who lives near the depot said, “If this service reaches any sort of volume of orders we will end up with a Chiswick clogged with green lorries and vans. They are unlikely to be able to resist the temptation to keep it as an evening services and there will be a steady stream of lorries travelling across London through the area. They probably will be advised to use the North Circular but, as the local section has been recently been shown to be the nation’s most congested, they will be looking for local alternative routes.”

North Chiswick Business Park. Picture: Google Street View

Local Councillor Gary Malcolm said he hadn’t heard about the plans until we informed him and added, “If something has changed since the any previous planning agreement it would make sense for them to re-apply to the Council with the updated implications.

“If what you are saying is true then much of Stirling Road already contains businesses (the dairy is the main one) which causes a great amount of noise disturbance to residents and so any increases would not be tolerable. Traffic is an issue on Bollo Lane as there are speeding traffic and dangers from larger vehicles / lorries.”

An Ealing council spokesperson said: “The council’s policy is to reduce traffic where possible and maintain the free flow of vehicles on the borough’s roads.

"We encourage residents and businesses to look into sustainable modes of travel, to help us deliver on our commitment of improving air quality across the borough. If incidences of increased traffic are reported to us, we will investigate and take appropriate action in line with current legislation.”

February 22, 2019