Residents hit out at plans for McDonald's in Warwick

Residents got together to raise awareness of the planning application last Saturday. Photo submitted.

The recent application proposed by McDonald’s is the second application to be submitted after McDonald’s withdrew their first application earlier this year.

The plans were resubmitted to Warwick District Council on August 3.

If given the go-ahead the new restaurant would go on the Tesco Superstore car park.

Ross More (pictured with Jo Goode) walked to campaign on Saturday August 25 and on his walk picked up five pieces of McDonalds litter. Photo submitted.

The use of the existing car park site would mean there would be a loss of spaces.

In the plans there will be 31 parking spaces for the restaurant. But the spaces taken up by the development would total 86 spaces meaning that 55 spaces in the car park would be lost.

So far there has been nearly 150 letters of objection and 12 letters in support registered on Warwick District Council’s planning portal.

A residential campaign was started against the plans and was led by Councillor Jackie D’Arcy and Labour party activists Curtis Oliver-Smith and John Sullivan, which saw 1,000 leaflets posted to the surrounding streets around Tesco.

The main issues the residents have are: litter, traffic, noise and air pollution, increased vermin and the promotion of an unhealthy lifestyle.

Curtis Oliver-Smith, 23, said: “Everyone knows that litter is always an issue with any fast food outlet and some argue that it is not the fault of the company, but the customers.

“Regardless of this, with the canal next to the proposed building, litter is litter and it has the potential to pollute the canal and damage wildlife, making the proposed location wrong.

“With the topic of plastics in our waters so predominate, do we really want to increase that problem so locally?”

Over the bank holiday weekend, the Warwick Courier hosted a poll on its Facebook page asking if people wanted to see a McDonald’s in Warwick.

To take part in the poll click here

The deadline for posting an objection is September 4 and can be done by using the reference W/18/1489 on the planning portal on Warwick District Council’s website.