Archived on 6/5/2022

Bell Green Aldi Powered by Diesel Generators [Now reconnected to mains]

anon3821395

30 Jan '20

I have contacted Aldi to ask them for comment

anon3821395

2 Feb '20

No response from Aldi yet on this. They asked me to private message them the details on Twitter, so I did on Thursday and haven’t had a response since then…

anon3821395

3 Feb '20

Aldi just replied on Twitter (via private message) to ask for a phone number so they could talk to me about this. I replied that I’d prefer for their response to be on the record. No reply since then …

MichMich

4 Feb '20

Why would they run on generators ? Isn’t that more expensive?

anon3821395

4 Feb '20

Exactly. It only makes sense if there are serious power supply issues at Bell Green. It’s possible the generators belong to the landlord as opposed to Aldi. Hopefully Aldi will fill us in soon…

Twitter

5 Feb '20

anon3821395

6 Feb '20

Twitter

7 Feb '20

Photo taken of generator outside Aldi:

SE26.life

10 Feb '20

This just in from Aldi:

Dear http://SE26.life,

Thank you for contacting Aldi Customer Services regarding our store at Bell Green Retail Park and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Whenever we open a new store, our intention is to always ensure that the store is connected to mains power before opening. On this rare occasion, however, Aldi are not the owners of the site and we therefore have no legal right to connect the store directly to the mains power. After exploring all possible options, unfortunately, there was no alternative other than to use a generator to provide power to the store.

Please be assured that we are working tirelessly to bring this matter to a swift conclusion, to the benefit of all parties, and we are doing everything within our remit, including legal action, to connect the store to mains power.

As you may be aware, Aldi invested a significant sum in an acoustic barrier, which was installed on 13th January, to reduce the sound produced by the generators. I am very sorry that this has not met our expectations and I am very disappointed with their lack of effectiveness.

In an effort to avoid the noise issues you have outlined, as well as minimising the emissions near to the residential area at the rear of the store, the generators have now been moved to the front of the store.

I hope my response assures you that we are working to resolve this matter as swiftly as possible.

Once again, thank you for contacting Aldi Customer Services.
Yours sincerely,

Anthony

Customer Service Advisor

kiwicanuck

10 Feb '20

Why is Aldi having this problem, assuming that Toys R’ Us did not have a generator? Are there other generators on the Bell Green site we haven’t been told about publicly? I can see that food-stores need back up, but 24/7 diesel spewing out is unhealthy and plain ridiculous.

Hudsonwalnut

10 Feb '20

They should make a financial contribution to clean air measures in the area. We have some of the highest air pollution levels in the borough and this is not helping. Opening despite the lack of a mains connection shows a great deal of arrogance towards the local resident population.

jonnoprice

12 Feb '20

Why on earth can’t they connect to the main grid? Sounds like the landlord is at fault here. Hopefully this gets sorted asap …

anon3821395

8 Mar '20

From ForestHull on SE23.life:

SE23.life

3 May '20

As reported on SE23.life, Aldi Sydenham have made a planning application for the ‘temporary 12 month’ installation of generators in an enclosure at the store front:

SydenhamSteph

6 May '20

Would you let us know how to object to this? If that would be a worthwhile thing to do. I’ve emailed in suppo for something in the past but used a template a friend shared but I can’t quite remem how I did it.

Thanks

jrw

6 May '20

Hi,
You either go to the Lewisham website, & follow links to “search and comment on planning applications” (or something like that). Search ‘aldi’, and it is at the top of the results. Or, just drop an email to planning@lewisham.gov.uk quoting no. DC/20/115852 and including your full postal address.

If you are concerned with the obstruction of the cycle stands and social distancing concerns around the front of the store, you can also comment on the commonplace COVID-19 survey of pedestrian and cycle safety, as seen on the other trail.

anon3821395

26 Aug '20

The planning application was updated yesterday - and has been “withdrawn by the applicant”

[hat tip to ForestHull on https://se23.life who spotted this]

jrw

26 Aug '20

Yay!!!

SE23.life

9 Sep '20

Update from ForestHull on SE23.life:

I asked Lewisham planning and my local Councillors for an update about these diesel generators, given that there is now no planning application or permission for their site, and here’s a summary of the informative responses.

The planning application for the temporary generators (DC/20/115852) was apparently withdrawn as Aldi have agreed a legal position with UK Power Networks to reconnect the store to the grid. The current unauthorised installation should therefore be removed by the end of October, though the reconnection is expected sooner than that. An investigation by Lewisham Planning Enforcement will therefore remain open until that time.

Cllr @John_Paschoud said he was personally confident the planning application would likely have been rejected, while the Planning Officer said the operation of ‘a large and low cost supermarket that many local residents used during a pandemic situation’ had been a consideration in the planning departments balance on the case - which indeed makes a difficult position for everyone involved. I can only imagine how controversial it would have been if Aldi were forced to close during the last few months, noting this case started in January before Covid was even on our radar.

Of course this doesn’t excuse the pollution made by Aldi’s massive generators and Cllr Paschoud also noted that environmental damage cannot easily be undone, but that Lewisham Council lack any powers to oblige irresponsible businesses to compensate those affected.

Indeed we can hope that Aldi will carbon offset for the diesel used, though that doesn’t help with NOx emissions and particulate, all of which could have been avoided with better planning on their part, or opening the store only when everything it needed was in place.

jrw

9 Sep '20

Excellent news, and well done Lewisham. However, I don’t believe anyone was expecting or hoping for Aldi to be closed down during the COVID-19 crisis over the matter. Given Aldi’s advertisement campaign claiming 100% renewable powered stores, though, I think Lewisham should make a public statement on the issue, now it is happily resolved

jayB

9 Sep '20

Interesting that adding to the already sky high levels of air pollution in Bell Green seems of little consequence to Lewisham council- unlike, for example, the air quality of the Thorpes and the huge amount of resources that have been spent closing off their roads making them “car free”. Hmmm

SE23.life

11 Sep '20

Some insight from ForestHull on SE23.life:

A bit of Friday maths on this topic.

The generators are in a step-over configuration and so I think only 1 is active at a time (the large flat thing in the foreground of one of the pictures maybe a battery pack to facilitate change overs).

The generator is speced at using 46 litres/hour when running at 75% load which seems reasonable.

We are at day 255 of 2020, so 6120 hours into the year. That means Aldi has used an estimated 281,520 litres of diesel.

If we use a handy CO2 estimator, we can estimate that means about 747 metric tonnes of CO2 have been emitted.

Grabbing some random CO2 factoid, a 747-400 airplane produces about 70kg of CO2 per hour. So these generators made the equivalent CO2 of a 747-400 cruising for about 345 days.

It’s 22 hours to fly to Sydney, so this is also equivalent to about 7 return flights to Sydney (if we overlook take-off and landing), but all within Bell Green.

Looking at carbon offsetting, we can pluck another estimate of CO2 absorption by a tree, which is about 1 tonne for a mature tree over 100 years. So I guess Aldi need to plant about 747 trees and wait 100 years.

If someone can make this into a witty info graphic and tweet it at Aldi, I’d be very happy

jrw

11 Sep '20

Genius!!! Doe that include providing the land to plant them?

jrw

12 Sep '20

marymck

12 Sep '20

And please Aldi, don’t do as Sainsburys did and entomb the trees in concrete. Poor tree planting does more harm than good. This is what you do …

https://www.barcham.co.uk/blog/how-much-space-do-i-need-for-a-tree/

jrw

13 Sep '20

SE26.life

12 Oct '20

Great news