McDonald's plan refusal overturned on appeal

A former police station is set to become a McDonald's drive-thru after a government planning inspector overturned a council decision to block the plans.

Bradford Council refused the fast food chain's application in September, following hundreds of objections to the new branch in Bradford Road, Bingley.

However, claims the restaurant would cause traffic congestion and parking chaos in the town were dismissed by planning inspector J Smith.

His findings, which have just been published, also argued it would be unfair to refuse the plans in order to "restrict competition" for existing food businesses and cafes in the town.

He added that although McDonald's food "can reasonably be described as inherently unhealthy" the decision to purchase their food was "a matter of individual consumer choice".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, planning and highways officers had recommended the plans be approved, arguing there was no planning reason to block the development.

However, councillors went against the recommendation and voted to refuse the plans.

Reasons included concerns over obesity among Bingley schoolchildren, highways and a lack of parking.

McDonald's decided to appeal the decision and, at a hearing earlier this month, Smith heard from objectors to the plans, council officers and representatives from the company.

He also made three site visits at different times throughout the day.

He said: "On each occasion, traffic along Bradford Road was not notably congested, including during the visit undertaken around local school finishing times."

He concluded the 24 parking spaces provided by the restaurant would be adequate and there would be no major issues caused by the loss of 15 on street parking spaces on Bradford Road.

Referring concerns the restaurant would lead to people eating unhealthy food, the decision said it was "not responsible for regulating the nutritional content of food itself".

Smith added that the branch would increase the numbers of jobs and expenditure in Bingley.

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