“Ridiculous” plans to open a 24/7 drive-thru KFC in Gosforth have been met with a backlash from locals.
The American fried chicken giant could open up a new restaurant in the car park of the Asda superstore in Hollywood Avenue, under proposals lodged with Newcastle City Council late last year.
But the fast food scheme has come in for heavy criticism from residents, who have labelled the idea “entirely unsuitable” and “absolutely not needed”.
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Around 50 people have already lodged objections against the plans, raising fears about a road gridlock and pollution problems around what is already a busy junction, litter, and dangers in exposing local schoolchildren to junk food.
A planning application from the site's owners, Euro Garages Ltd, states that the Asda has an excess of parking spaces and that the building of the KFC would have "no impact" on the supermarket, adding that it would create up to 40 new jobs and be a "high-quality addition" to the area.
The restaurant would be open all day, every day, according to documents submitted to the council, and is among 500 new sites that KFC wants to open across the UK.
One objector labelled it a “ridiculous proposal”, adding: “The idea that a hot food takeaway would be right at the bottom of people's gardens is outrageous, not to mention the adjacent cemetery.”
Among the opponents to the scheme is former city councillor Brian Moore, who told the council it was “simply madness” to bring in more vehicles to the site.
Mr Moore, who was forcibly removed earlier this month from a civic centre planning hearing over a contentious housing development in West Denton, also warned that the KFC could take trade away from businesses on Gosforth High Street.
Another objector said: "I can't imagine a worse place to site this. The bottleneck of traffic trying to get in and out of Asda is already a nightmare at school times. Anyone unfortunate to find themselves trying to exit Asda car park at about 3.40 will find themselves sitting in a queue for around half an hour, engines idling while they wait to get out, spewing pollution – terrible for local residents and incredibly harmful to all the children travelling to and from school. It's already a huge problem, and this proposal would only make it much worse."
However, one supporter of the proposals agreed that the underused car park meant it was “only fit to repurpose this area to be something more useful”.
The KFC plans come after a long-running saga over plans for a Burger King drive-thru at the old West End police station in Westgate Road.
A government inspector this week upheld the city council’s decision to reject that scheme, on grounds that there were “significant shortcomings” in its design.
However, she found that fears over traffic congestion and obesity levels among children could not be used to justify refusing planning permission.
KFC was contacted for a comment.
Euro Garages' application states: "The proposed restaurant has been carefully designed to sit comfortably in the existing car park and optimise traffic flow in the existing car park. The proposal has been designed in accodrdance with the planning policy context and with the assistance of various reports provided by external consultants.
"The chosen materials will ensure a high quality result and will only enhance the existing setting and will complement the existing mixed use surroundings."
