Plans unveiled for 24 hour drive-thru McDonald’s on Plas Coch – claims traffic impact would be ‘relatively low’

Plans for a new 24 hour drive-thru McDonald’s just outside of Wrexham town centre have been submitted.

The application proposes that the new fast food outlet is built on the eastern corner of The Range / Argos car park on Plas Coch, just off the ‘B&Q’ roundabout and the entrance to the university and Plas Coch retail park.

If approved the new takeaway would consists of a two storey building, with 100 seats and “side-by-side” drive-thru facilities.

The proposed year of opening for the new development is 2021.

Currently there are 235 spaces serving the two stores, with the section proposed for the new takeaway comprising of 70. However if the development is given the go ahead there would be 196 spaces left for customers accessing Argos, The Range and McDonald’s.

Although this would mean there is a shortage in the maximum parking requirement, details provided within the application’s transport assessment state that the retail park has been “identified as having surplus parking for its operational needs and therefore provides the opportunity for redevelopment.”

A total of 30 full-time and 30 part-time jobs will be created if the drive-thru is given the go ahead. It is also anticipated that the takeaway would be open 24 hours a day.

The development area will be a stones throw away from development of up to 410 residential apartments on the university site, plans that drew concerns about the amount of traffic generated to an already congested area.

The “Wrexham Strategic Road Network Capacity and Improvement Study (March 2016)”, a report prepared by Capita on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council to assess the strategic road network in and around Wrexham town centre is cited, noting that Junction 5 of the A483 “was assessed as being likely to be over capacity in the 2028” however there could be planned future work to improve things. The planning application notes “… this is the
Highway Authority issue to resolve in any event”. The application states “…the majority of McDonald’s trips are expected to be existing on the network in any event or shared with the Retail Park.”

It adds, “The traffic impact at the A483 Roundabout would be negligible and the traffic impact at the Plas Coch Roundabout would be relatively low compared to the background flows. The proposal would have no material impact on the operation of either of these junctions and therefore no mitigation measures are required.”

The documents states that customer access via car would be provided via the existing entrance to the site, with the drive-thru lane running “clockwise around the building with customers existing back into the McDonald’s car park.

If approved it will be the second drive-thru to have been built in the Plas Coch area in recent months, with a Costa Coffee opening on the Plas Coch Retail Park earlier this year.

The application will be considered by Wrexham Council’s Planning Committee at a later date.

(Pics: From the planning application public document)