Burger King drive-thru plans for Morecambe withdrawn from city council meeting

The proposals were due to be heard by a city council planning committee today, Monday.

However, the council confirmed this morning that the application has been withdrawn from the agenda.

Burger King wants to re-open on the site they originally occupied in Hilmore Way.

The new proposals include plans to reinstate the drive-thru lane at the restaurant, which would wrap around the existing restaurant unit.

The site has been disused since Frankie & Benny’s left in 2020 after 12 years.

Burger King has another restaurant in Morecambe town centre, next to the Arndale Centre, and also opened a new restaurant in Lancaster city centre in October.

The land is owned by Lancaster City Council, and planning officers had recommended the scheme be refused at today's meeting.

Despite saying the proposals would bring an "empty and deteriorating" site "back into an active economic generating use", they said the scheme fails to provide adequate capacity for vehicles queuing to use the proposed drive through.

They were concerned this would result in queuing vehicles on the shared access road, on the adopted highway Hilmore Way, and across the designated cycleway, leading to queuing traffic, delays, and blocking of access.

"These significant negative impacts on the local highway and cycling network would be detrimental to highway safety," they said.

Lancashire County Council Highways also objected on traffic grounds, while Environmental Health recommended refusal, saying there had been no information submitted on noise and odour.

A Burger King spokesman said: “Burger King UK is regularly evaluating opportunities to bring our great-tasting products to more guests in new locations, however we do not currently have any further information at this time.”