Fast food drive-thru gets planning permission despite litter concerns

Euro Garages Ltd applied to Daventry District Council to build a drive-thru fast food restaurant in place of a hotel that had already been earmarked for the land, next to the A14 and just north of Cold Ashby.

Members of the district council’s planning committee granted the scheme on Wednesday (October 10) despite the resistance from two nearby parish councils.

Cold Ashby Parish Council said it objected due to the potential ‘noise pollution, light pollution, litter and traffic volumes in an environment where these are already a serious problem.’

And Thornby Parish Council listed its main concerns as the 'extra volume of traffic being created both during the construction process and once it is completed, the potential increase in rural crime levels, increased levels of littering on the site and adjacent roads and finally increased light pollution'.

But the district planning officer said it is ‘unlikely that the planning system can control the behaviour of motorists who may choose to discard litter from their cars’.

Ward member Councillor Alan Chantler felt there were concerns, but could see not any technical aspects on which to vote against granting planning permission.

He said: “The concern here is that a hotel is probably a lot quieter at night than a drive-thru outlet and there’s the possibility of extra noise. Residents are worried that people will come off the A14, buy a burger in a box, finish it and toss the rubbish in the villages.

“But we can’t use that to refuse this application because the principal of commercial development is already there. So alarmingly I will be recommending that we follow the officer advice to approve this.”