Residents object to 24-hour McDonald's

McDonald's has applied for the restaurant on Tesco's Emscote Road site to open 24 hours a day

Twenty four-hour opening at a McDonald's looks set to be approved despite a community backlash.

Residents fear drug-related problems, noise, litter and antisocial behaviour near the site in Warwick will worsen if the change goes through.

The district council's planning committee have been recommended to approve a lifting of restrictions on opening hours at the Emscote Road site in Warwick.

Permission was granted for the restaurant next to Tesco in 2019, with conditions that limited its daily operational hours to between 06:00 and 23:00 GMT.

Opening hour conditions were originally implemented to minimise "nuisance or disturbance" to nearby residential properties, according to council documents.

Resident Ross More urged the council to reject the new application.

"This is a densely populated residential area and (this) will cause undue noise, unsocial behaviour, traffic and litter," he wrote.

"There were (around) 240 local resident objections to the original application but permission was granted with the conditions. I cannot see what has changed."

Another, Janine Farmer, argued: "Once the planning was first approved it was on the premise that it would never be 24 hours. There was concern at the time they would try to open at night but promises were made that it would not be allowed.

"Drug dealing is a particular issue in the area and having the restaurant open at night encourages undesirables to use the place for deals and drug taking."

A noise management plan submitted with the application includes asking customers to keep noise down, use of CCTV and bans for those who cause problems.

The council's report stated officers were satisfied with evidence submitted and the proposal would not cause "any additional undue harm to neighbouring amenity".

The planning committee meets to discuss the application on Wednesday.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.