McDonald’s gets go-ahead despite ‘boy racer’ fears

Thursday, 1 August 2024 08:00

By Guy Henderson, Local Democracy Reporter

McDonald’s has been given the green light to build a new drive-through takeaway in Exeter – but some city councillors aren’t quite lovin’ it.

The drive-through will go up alongside the Tesco supermarket in Digby, which the city planning committee heard was becoming a ‘fast food hub’ with KFC and Taco Bell already there.
Councillors also had concerns about anti-social behaviour and ‘boy racers’ revving engines at night and keeping neighbours awake.
The council received 26 objections to the plan, from people worried about traffic, noise, litter, rats and seagulls, as well as health concerns over the increasing number of fast food outlets.
Cllr Anne Jobson (Con, St Loyes) said: “Quite a lot of boy – and girl – racers go into that car park to do wheelies in the early hours of the morning.
“But I’ve had as many emails from people saying ‘yippee’ as those asking why on earth we need another fast food outlet. It’s a shame they’ve gone for a drive-through, because that element really does have problems.
“Residents say they take their lives in their hands every time they cross Russell Way.”
Cllr Zoe Hughes (Lab, Pennsylvania) added: “The anti-social behaviour issue is my main concern with this – the racing of motorbikes and cars, the handbrake turns, the kind of hanging-out behaviour that tends to happen in this sort of development.
“I would urge McDonald’s to bear that in mind when looking at security, staffing and CCTV.”
Councillors were told that there were no planning grounds on which to turn the application down, and there would be 30 conditions imposed which would cover most of the issues raised.