A school in Madrid rebels against the ghost kitchens open next to its patio

The families of the Miguel de Unamuno public school, in the Madrid neighborhood of Delicias, did not know what ghost kitchens were, hidden places for home delivery with industrial stoves in central areas of the city, until they found out. they ran into some in the building that adjoins their children's schoolyard. The emergence of new chimneys – four, specifically, one after the other – caught the attention of mothers and fathers. The facade without signs on the ground floor where six industrial kitchens are going to be installed does not give any clue of an activity that will bring dozens of riders, motorcycles, bicycles and delivery trucks to a residential street in the Arganzuela district (Madrid).

"The school is participating in school riots to ask for less smoke and a healthier environment and we find that they want to impose the opposite. Nobody would think of putting a school in a polygon, Well, not having industrial activity next to a school either," says Noelia, from the CEIP Miguel de Unamuno Family Association and mother of two students out of the 900 enrolled in the center. The Madrid City Council has granted the responsible company, Cokukin, a building permit for a ground floor of more than 500 square meters, although the company still does not have an operating permit. There is no date, at the moment, for the start of the activity.

The Urban Planning delegate, Mariano Fuentes, announced a month ago that the City Council was suspending the granting of licenses while the general plan was modified to "adapt industrial use to the new activities that are emerging" in the city. The City Council made the decision after a strong neighborhood revolt over the opening of ghost kitchens in the Tetuán district and after Más Madrid requested a moratorium on the granting of permits to stop their multiplication.

However, a spokeswoman for the Urban Planning area, managed by Ciudadanos, explained to elDiario.es that this stoppage will not be implemented until "advance is made" on the changes to the general plan. The corporation led by José Luis Martínez-Almeida defends that it has raised the demands on these businesses to "minimize incidents in the environment." "We have demanded that the premises have a loading and unloading area and parking area for motorcycles and bicycles inside, and also measures to isolate acoustically."

One of the founders of Cokukin, Francisco Rey, laments the "bad reputation" of these businesses whose implementation has accelerated with the pandemic. In conversation with elDiario.es, he blames the situation on competing companies that have "cared more about productivity" than anything else and have "exaggerated their capabilities to controversial limits." "We are not like them. We have a different vision of the business, we want to revolutionize the restaurant business to come," says this Argentine who, together with three partners, has set up his first ghost kitchen in Madrid after opening several in Latin America.

Their first plan was to open a dozen kitchens, although the controversy has forced them to reduce the number to six. They are also setting up another central kitchen for large shipments transported two or three times a week by truck. In its Linkedin profile, the company defines itself as "a new generation of brilliant kitchens and services at the service of delivery", with a business model "based on transparency", and its website highlights that they offer sinks and toilets to riders .

180 motorcycles a day

21 meters separate the extraction hoods from the school yard, a distance that complies with the regulations, according to the founder. "They ask us for 15 meters. It shouldn't be a problem because the chimneys are leaking," he adds. The company calculates that some 180 motorcycles a day could pass through the school environment. In the application for the license to the City Council, the expected impact was more than 450 vehicles with a schedule from 10 in the morning to 11:30 p.m.

This is not the first time that there has been a neighborhood uprising to stop an industrial kitchen, but in this case the proximity to the school has mobilized the families of the students as well. They have been demanding improvements in access for years. They have already transferred the proposal for traffic cuts at entry and exit times that gives meaning to the school revolt to the participatory budgets and in mid-March, the Arganzuela District Board approved an initiative drafted by the Association of Mothers and Fathers -presented by More Madrid in Plenary – to create safer access.

The residents of José Calvo street, in Tetuán, have united in a platform after verifying the inconvenience caused by the ghost kitchens open in the basement of number 10. Residents notice the new activity above all due to the constant transfer of dealers. The company that runs the business, Cocklane, has been granted a parking reservation by the City Council for the parking of motorbikes and bicycles when picking up orders.

According to the figures collected by the PSOE, there are 27 facilities of this type in the central area of ​​the city. Some of them "have up to 38 kitchens," said the former councilor – and now a new government delegate – Mercedes González, who warned that by the end of the year the capital could reach 250. More Madrid has located 180 kitchens in total. Both municipal groups are going to bring urgent motions to the district plenary this Wednesday to paralyze the operation of this business and to urge the municipal government to carry out a detailed inspection.