Distribution depot proposed in Greenwich
Main image shows hotel under construction. Depot planned opposite.
Consultation is set to begin on a new distribution centre in Greenwich near the forthcoming site of Silvertown Tunnel.
Bloom are proposing a depot for last-mile deliveries located on Tunnel Avenue opposite the recently opened Radisson hotel.
Five units are in total are planned, though the site is not on the scale of the large depot planned just over the Thames in Silvertown. That is projected to see 2,520 vehicles movements a days excluding those using 961 car parking spaces.
However it will meet an area that is seeing change – with the aforementioned hotel over the road and 1,500 homes planned nearby at Morden Wharf.
Traffic such as lorries are currently prohibited via a bus-only gate on Tunnel Avenue. That looks set to be removed:
That will ensure additional traffic passing the main entrance to 1,500 homes at Morden Wharf , which was approved in 2021. A last-mile depot slightly to the south would see frequent vehicular movements coming and going in the area.
The consultation states:
“The site has existing industrial buildings which generates traffic movements throughout the typical working day. Whilst we expect the proposals to generate some additional movements throughout the day, given the sites location and the industrial nature of the area this is expected to have a minimal impact on the local community“.
That last sentence doesn’t appear to acknowledge changes nearby.
When approving plans for Morden Wharf, Greenwich’s Planning Department allocated very little income via Section 106 to improve walking and cycling links towards the Peninsula, o2 and north Greenwich station. Developer U&I will also pay extremely low sums of Community Infrastructure Levy for improved services given it’s a prime Thames-side site, thus efforts to make safe and enticing active travel links already appear limited even before considering the removal of a bus-only gate and extra goods vehicles.
Another issue is parking. Tunnel Avenue is currently an area with prevalent pavement parking and reporting to Greenwich Council has achieved little to nothing for many years. More HGV parking on paving could well be seen. This should be relatively easy to solve, but Greenwich have failed to address it for over 10 years and counting.
This new proposal isn’t the only delivery depot to emerge in the area. Another distribution centre is now on the cards for a site off Bugsby’s Way at the site of a former housing proposal from Rockwell.
That’s six acres in size and would feed lorries into Bugsby’s Way, past new housing being built at Greenwich Millennium Village and onto the new Silvertown Tunnel.
Earlier this month this site looked at the next phases of Greenwich Millennium Village now under construction, with some due to be occupied in 2022. The following phases contains hundreds more homes and hundreds of car parking spaces.
Greenwich Council will now have to weigh up the need for depots as online deliveries continue to grow, while weighing up how much increase in HGVs and traffic will be seen – and how much a factor Silvertown Tunnel is in that change. What does appear clear is that the existing road network often struggles as it is, and adding a new tunnel’s worth of traffic and more depots nearby will add increased congestion and pressure.
An online event discussing the plan with the developer of the Greenwich logistics hub is set to be held on 28 February.
We all know the Silvertownl Tunnel is here to stay. We are set to say traffic and pollution increase on in the area. Hence why two Labour councillors representing the area have decided not to stand in the ward affected by the construction of the Silvertown Tunnel One has decided to stand down and a second councillor has decided to stand in a safe seat I’m a different part of to the Borough
Therefore we need to look for the positives creating much needed jobs forr local people which the distribution centre will provide along with construction jobs and driving jobs when the Distribution Centre opens if planning permission granted.
What we also need to see public realm and public transport improvements in the area to make walking cycling safer and to encourage more use of public transport or private car usage will continue to grow year by year.
I regularly cycle on Tunnel Avenue and this is already an awful place to be. Many cars and lorries illegally parked reducing the road size, south part of the road is busy with lorries exiting/entering the nearby industrial sites making it unsafe to cycle and absolutely unpleasant to walk by. The road is also badly suffering from the heavy traffic with the highest density of potholes I have seen in the area and all the lorries bring mud and dirt on the road – can’t see how this is going to improve the situation which is a shame since Tunnel Avenue could be a nice link to pedestrians and cyclists to North Greenwich.
I thought this site was going to be allocated for housing
That said I agree we have to accept the Silvertown Tunnel is here to stay. With a fast growing local population we will.need to create new jobs for local people which the Distribution Centre would provide.