A McDonald’s drive-thru wants to stay open into the early hours of the morning.
At present, the restaurant and takeaway in Hart Street, Maidstone, has to shut no later than midnight under the terms of its planning permission, granted in 2015.
The McDonald’s drive-thru in Maidstone
The branch, which sits between the A20 Broadway, Barker Road and Hart Street, already tried for an extension once before.
In 2016, it asked to be allowed to stay open 24 hours a day.
Permission was refused by Maidstone council because of concerns of noise affecting residents trying to sleep in neighbouring properties.
The firm appealed, but in 2018, a government planning inspector upheld the council’s refusal.
He referenced a noise survey undertaken at the time that recorded “puerile chanting, anti-social and unnecessary revving of engines, car honks, youths shouting across the car park, noisy music from a car window, doors slamming, and a female shriek” all being recorded in the restaurant’s car park in the 15 minutes after its midnight closure.
McDonald’s seeks a ‘modest’ increase in opening hours
One neighbour commented: “It’s a nightmare. The boy racers in the car park and the smell of the food, we don’t get any sleep.”
This time, McDonald’s said permission should be granted, because it was seeking only a “modest” two-hour extension.
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It has commissioned a Noise Impact Assessment by a professional consultant that found that the extra noise would not be significant, although the survey seemed to be based on an assumption the two-hour extension would bring in only 24 extra drive-thru customers in that period.
See the details of the application on the Maidstone council website here.
Search for application number 26/501307.