A planning application image of how the new structure in Utopia Village will look and, left, the current site

NEIGHBOURS in Primrose Hill fear they will be driven mad by a constant nerve-shredding hum from an “engine room” of ventilation machines.

They are now preparing to line up against the owners of Utopia Village – a former piano factory in Chalcot Road, now home to independent businesses – in a bid to convince planners not to give permission for equipment that has been likened to a spaceship crash landing into a conservation area.

Sunday Times columnist Hadley Freeman, broadcaster Andrew Marr and former Football Association chief Lord Triesman, who live nearby, are among opponents.

Ms Freeman told the New Journal: “Primrose Hill is one of London’s loveliest areas. My neighbours and I feel extraordinarily lucky to live here and we go out of our way to help maintain the area’s beauty and sense of community.

“There is a reason films like Paddington are made here and tourists come and visit. But this plan threatens that. It will turn this quiet, lovely area into a noisy industrial one.”

She added: “It is genuinely baffling that anyone could think it reasonable to build an industrial engine room in the middle of a residential area. If Utopia Village really needs an industrial engine room, it should build it in the middle of its very large, already-existing structure, which can absorb the noise. It should not do so at the bottom of our gardens, simply because it is convenient for them, having a seriously detrimental effect on our lives.”

Hadley Freeman, right, at a book talk in Primrose Hill with Baroness Joan Bakewell

Objectors said they doubted whether a planning application currently being mulled over by council officials paints the full picture.

Ms Freeman said: “Even the developers admit that the noise levels from the industrial machinery would be over 100 decibels, meaning it would be like having a constant high-speed train running at the bottom of our gardens. And even that is probably a wild underestimate, because the developers claimed our gardens are further away from the proposed engine room than they actually are.”

She said she believed the new building went against every planning rule relating to conservation areas, adding: “When my neighbours wanted to re-build their garden wall, they had to prove to the council they would use the same bricks as before, to maintain the character of the area. But the council might allow a giant black UFO spaceship, making the constant noise of a low-flying jet, to be plonked in the middle of Primrose Hill? It is astonishing.”

Planning agents Smith Jenkins, working on behalf of the Utopia Village, said they need to replace outdated heating, cooling and ventilation systems and instead of creating noise, the plan would lessen the current impact on neighbours.

They said: “A number of the existing units to be removed are positioned close to noise-sensitive boundaries.

“Their removal will benefit direct neighbours in terms of mitigating the noise impacts. The proposed location for the new units has been carefully considered having regard to operational, aesthetic and neighbourly considerations.

“The consolidation of existing dispersed and unsightly plant would result in an enhancement to the conservation area.”