A new McDonald’s drive-thru will be built alongside the M6, on the outskirts of Preston, after being given the green light by councillors.
The 24-hour eatery is set to spring up on wasteland off junction 31 of the motorway, the ‘Preston Central’ turn-off, in Samlesbury It will stand on Preston New Road in front of an existing non-motorway services area and the neighbouring Tickled Trout Hotel.
A meeting of South Ribble Borough Council’s planning committee heard that the accompanying eat-in restaurant will have space for 50 diners, while the development will create an estimated 70 jobs.
For traffic leaving the motorway and for westbound A59 vehicles, the outlet will be accessed via the same roundabout exit as the services and hotel. Eastbound traffic, leaving Preston, will gain access from the slip road entrance that already leads to the hotel. However, a direct access point off that route will be blocked off.
Twenty-nine parking spaces will be available, along with two bays for motorists waiting for food. Drive-thru traffic will circulate the building in a clockwise direction.
Neither National Highways, which is responsible for the motorway network, nor Lancashire County Council, which looks after the A59, objected to the proposal.
Papers presented to the committee revealed that a similar drive-thru application for the site – from an unspecified fast food chain – was refused back in 1995, because the plot was, and remains, classed as greenbelt.
However, the rules surrounding greenbelt development have since changed, with areas of ‘hardstanding’ – like the ground on which the new McDonald’s will be built – now being deemed to have been ‘previously developed’.
In those circumstances, since December 2024, new development has been deemed acceptable provided it does not cause “substantial harm” to the openness of the site.
South Ribble planning officer Lisa Matthewson told the meeting that the higher backdrop provided by the hotel and services area meant the McDonald’s building was “considered to be appropriate” in that location.
Committee member Keith Martin said the land was currently “just a mess” and that it would be “nice to see that area tidied up”.
The application was unanimously approved with little debate.
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