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Planning permission secured by Turley for newly opened Docklands sortation centre in Bromley-by-Bow

Acting on behalf of leading parcel delivery company DPD, Turley provided Planning, Sustainability & ESG and Economics services over the past 18 months associated with its new £40m regional sortation centre in Bromley-By-Bow that will enable DPD to deliver all-electric up to 80,000 parcels into London each day.

The opening ceremony was performed by the Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP, who praised the investment in the new facility for helping to drive the sustainable economic growth the UK needs, in front of an audience comprising some of the UK's leading online retailers.

The facility, which is the size of 8.5 football pitches, will create 650 new jobs and will mean that DPD's final mile delivery service within London's north and south circular area will be all-electric.

The innovative site is a hybrid sortation and distribution facility which involved the substantive retrofit of an existing warehouse. In addition to the parcel delivery operation, which will be DPD's most sustainable in the UK, the 430 metre long state-of-the-art conveyor system will automatically sort all intra-London parcels for next-day delivery on-site, instead of them being trunked to the Midlands and back for sorting, as currently.

As part of being a diesel-free operation, the site has solar panels on the parking canopy to help charge the 500 electric delivery vans and a 40,000 litre HVO tank to enable the fleet of LGVs and 7.5T trucks to fill-up with the renewable biofuel.

The development will also see DPD achieve its pledge to deliver to 30 of the largest towns and cities in the UK with low-emission final mile delivery vehicles.

Elaine Kerr, DPD UK CEO commented:

"I am absolutely delighted to welcome the Secretary of State for Transport to our brand-new Docklands site. This investment represents another huge step towards our net zero goals and, I believe, demonstrates the new gold standard for a sustainable parcel delivery operation in London, or any city. It is also great to be able to share our vision with so many of our retail partners, who have backed us on this journey to create genuinely more sustainable solutions for their customers.

"This represents a major milestone in our journey towards net zero. We opened the UK's first all-electric parcel delivery depot in Westminster almost exactly five years ago. Now Docklands demonstrates what is possible, on a much bigger scale. But this is far from the end. We are constantly looking for new and smarter solutions, as we demonstrated earlier this year with the roll-out of autonomous robot deliveries, and we will continue investing in innovation to accelerate our decarbonisation journey."

Associate Director, Christopher Schiele said:

“It has been fantastic to assist DPD with the various planning, sustainability and economics matters that needed to be resolved to deliver this proposal for a state-of-the-art sortation facility which will bring new employment opportunities to east London and serves as a prime example for sustainable last mile logistics operations in the capital.”

20 February 2024