Drive-thru Starbucks at Boulevard is approved

Once built, this will actually be the second Starbucks café to be in operation at Bridgewater Park.

​In their report, the planners wrote: “The site consists of a rectangular shaped parcel of land amounting to 0.25 hectares.

"It comprises a portion of the undeveloped lands to the west of Cascum Link. The site falls to the south of the recently constructed new access and internal road leading to the adjacent GO petrol filling station and KFC restaurant.

"The vehicular access to the development site will be via the newly upgraded access of Cascum Link (which currently provides access to KFC) and connects The Boulevard to the A1.

"This access has been designed to accommodate service vehicles and currently provides access to Burger King and the adjacent Go filling station.

"The drive-thru element is accessed from the car park and encircles the main building, using a single one way-queue to achieve the required 15-car queuing lane.

"Car parking will be provided within the proposed development site. Twelve spaces have been provided for the drive-thru element of the proposal.

“Without a drive thru element, a coffee pod/restaurant of this size would be limited to 20 spaces. Adding a drive thru enables people to avoid parking.

"A large portion of customers will use the drive through element rather than sitting in and will not make use of the car park.

"It is anticipated that the majority of trips to the proposed development site will be shared with amenities in the surrounding area (The Boulevard & KFC), having parked at these premises and walking to the proposed site.

"Officers, in consultation with DfI Roads, note the queue lane should have sufficient space for 15 cars.

"The access road off Cascum Link has multiple lanes in-out off Cascum Link, and therefore queuing traffic will not be an issue.

“While it is recognised that the proposal is outside the town centre, it represents the creation of a drive-thru restaurant.

"This proposal will not result in the creation of new retail floor space outside of the town centre, and as such will have no adverse impact on the town centre."

Although no letters of objections have been received, the planners’ report explains that a number of mitigating measures will be enforced to ensure that noise disruption is minimised.

They state in their report: “The operation of the development hereby approved, including deliveries and collections and movement of all vehicles there, shall not take place outside the hours of 07:00 to 23:00, and all loading and unloading shall take place within the curtilage of the site only.

"The development hereby permitted shall not be occupied until a 3300mm high acoustic fence is erected around the external plant yard.

"This is to ensure that residential amenity is maintained at noise sensitive receptors in the vicinity.”