A CONTROVERSIAL planning application for a £900,000 Starbucks drive-thru at a service station off a busy roundabout has been approved.
Rossendale Council has given Blackburn-based Euro Garages (EG) permission for the coffee shop at Rising Bridge service station.
It already houses a McDonald’s and a Shell petrol station, and the drive-thru would add to the Blackburn Road site, just off the A56 Rising Bridge roundabout.
The development will be situated at the back of the businesses and access to the coffee shop would be taken through McDonald’s car park.
The approval is subject to a raft of conditions.
These include restrictions on operating hours to between 6am and 11pm, tannoy-noise limits, and requirements relating to tree planting, ecology and the need for a comprehensive review of site access soon after the development fully opens.
The original application envisaged the coffee shop and drive-thru operating 24 hours a day.
It is expected that the scheme will create 20 jobs, five full-time and 15 part-time.
In October Rising Bridge county councillor David Stansfield raised concerns about the plans which he said would cause more congestion on an already busy stretch of road.
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