Innovative Logistics (Part 3): Developing smarter cities

What role do you think ultra-sustainable logistics can play within communities in terms of creating smarter and better-connected cities?

George Hickman
Every time that you regenerate a building, whatever its scale, it has an impact on the people immediately around it, the community around it. That's just in its physical form. I think within the logistics, you’ve got a very visual aid to seeing the movement of goods and providing a service to the people in that community.

We are talking last mile, so I'm very aware of where my Ocado shop comes from. I notice their electric buildings. I know people locally who work for Ocado. It does have an impact. I think you can feed all that through, equally also within what we're doing, we do try and work with the local community.

Particularly within our platform at the moment, we are looking at what we can do. We've chosen, canals and waterways, which again, are a lifeblood through much of London, but have been slightly forgotten. So, we are working with local communities to improve those facilities.

That's the story of regeneration. It gets noticed and it's very important.

Luke Le Brun
I think that's absolutely right and the work that KSP in particular have been doing with the canoe clubs has been great to see, and the canal clean-ups has been good to see, but again, taking a little bit of a step back, there's a lot we can do with good quality design, with good quality consultation, engagement with local communities as we're building out. What we're trying to do is provide quality spaces for good employment, for quality jobs.

That's an important consideration. A lot of us in this platform grew up in London. We are Londoners. I grew up in South London, in and around these areas, so I know these locations very well and I know I don't want to put something there that I'm going to be driving past every day and thinking it's a big grey blot on the landscape. We want these things to fit.

George Hickman
Our development we're doing down in Mitcham at the moment, it's part of a much larger industrial estate which probably until a few years ago would've been a relatively secondary location. But I think working with the council and the local stakeholders, I think everyone can see that hopefully this can be a catalyst to a wider regeneration of that area.

You can listen to the full podcast here. This podcast is produced by OG Podcasts. Find out more at ogpodcasts.co.uk.

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