Bloom Warehouses, Brixton Hill and Greenwich

Planning permission has been granted for ‘green’ warehouse developments at two sites in central London.  Located in Brixton Hill and Greenwich, the schemes are some of the first to be implemented by Bloom and will transform under-utilised real estate into ultra-urban warehouses to enable businesses to thrive and become more sustainable.

The units will target high-level environmental ratings to meet Bloom’s core sustainability objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through construction and operational efficiency.  Motion supported the industrial investor and developer with transport and travel advice, including access, parking and servicing arrangements, as well as measures to encourage sustainable travel.

To meet additional requirements stipulated by planning and highway officers, the team supplied supplementary ‘dark kitchen’ trip analysis for the Brixton site.  The need to accommodate bicycle and scooter demand associated with a potential dark kitchen operation was assessed, and the increased development demands were deemed to have minimal impact on the local junction operation.

Councillor concerns about traffic generation for the Greenwich site were also addressed by Motion.  Measures were explored to promote electric vehicle use for the movement of outbound goods and local aggregate wharfs to reduce road trips for the delivery of goods and construction materials to the site.

The warehouses will feature green walls, green roofs, increased landscaping, bird boxes and insect hotels.  Renewable energy from solar photovoltaic panels on roofs will power the warehouses.  The sites will be equipped to service the latest in sustainable delivery vehicles with enhanced power supply and electric charging facilities to enable e-cargo bikes and electric vans.

“Motion certainly faced a challenge due to the location of the sites, the proximity to residential areas and the types of flexible use class required.  The team did well to model, analyse and interpret complicated vehicle movement numbers, managing to allay council concerns, sufficient to grant consent.”

Chris Leonard, Development Director, Bloom Developments

Image credit: © Bloom