IKEA plans to demolish Sainsbury’s on Bugsby’s Way and the community park behind it, to build an IKEA mega-store, bigger than IKEA Tottenham. You can help to change these plans. IKEA do not have planning consent yet - these plans can still be changed, but your voice needs to be heard.
In other major cities across the world, most of them far less congested than London, IKEA is opening "traffic free" stores, including Hong Kong, Sydney, Hamburg and Paris.
IKEA has billed its Greenwich store as the store "best connected by public transport", but the site is in fact further away from a train station than any other London store.
There is no incentive to travel by public transport. IKEA plans a full size store with self service furniture warehouse. In other urban areas IKEA do not allow customers to take furniture home themselves to reduce car use. If IKEA were truly committed to a car-free London IKEA, they would model it on their stores in Hamburg and Paris.
Ever tried to get a Billy Bookcase home on the bus? IKEA claim that 35% of customers will travel to the Greenwich store by public transport, despite it being further away from a train or tube station than any other London store. As a comparison, only 22% of customers travel to the Tottenham store by public transport. Flat pack furniture is heavy!
Ever visited IKEA and spent ages searching for a parking space? All other Greater London IKEA stores have between 1,200 and 1,900 spaces and are regularly full to capacity. The Greenwich site only has space for 609 cars. Greenwich Council acknowledge that this will lead to traffic building up in adjacent residential roads as customers queue for spaces.
We are losing our parks and green spaces. As well as demolishing a fifteen-year-old, award-winning, eco-friendly supermarket, the plans include bulldozing a nature park and community orchard. The main access road will also pass directly by Millenium Primary School. Despite this, the store was approved on the grounds that ‘it will have no adverse effect on the environment’.
Ever spent hours queuing for the Blackwall Tunnel? Traffic congestion in the area is amongst the worst in London. Visitors will arrive from north and south of the tunnel. IKEA unbelievably claims that their store will reduce traffic.
Sainsbury's is only moving 400m down the road And it will be Europe's largest Sainsbury's store! In addition, there will be an enormous Marks & Spencer. Both these stores will be accessed from the same roads.
Greenwich Council has relied on IKEA’s own reports. Greenwich Council accepted IKEA's claims that they will reduce traffic without commissioning an independent review of their figures. Join us in demanding that Greenwich Council obtain an independent report on the likely effect on our roads.
Ever been stuck in traffic at the weekend? IKEA admit that traffic to their stores peaks at weekends. Imagine the effect of adding this to the traffic queues to and from the O2 and a Charlton football match. Or both?
Did you know that air pollution in Greenwich is nearly three times the European limit? Air quality in the immediate area around the site is 105 micrograms per cubic metre for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). The legal limit for NO2 is 40 micrograms per cubic metre. There are 150 deaths a year in Greenwich due to air pollution.
Ever got stuck in traffic to IKEA Croydon? People across South-East London and Kent are already saying they will come to Greenwich rather than sitting in traffic to IKEA Croydon. The major access roads from the west (Trafalgar Road) will take hundreds of thousands more cars right through the already-congested town centre of Greenwich, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and over the A2 across Blackheath common. The Council itself admits that “traffic is the single greatest problem faced by Greenwich Town Centre” .
IKEA Sidcup was rejected due to Traffic Concerns. A previous application by IKEA was rejected adjacent to the A20 dual carriageway in Sidcup because it was accepted that the vast majority of IKEA customers travel by car, and that this would have an unacceptable impact on local roads. Yet the approved Greenwich proposal claims that this scheme in a more central, more congested and more polluted site, will have no impact.
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