Road safety concerns as Telford restaurant’s drive-thru plans rejected

A Telford restaurant’s plans for a drive thru collection lane have been rejected over road safety concerns.

The Clock Tower, at Station Road, Donnington, had proposed a new exit onto the A518 New Trench Road.

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But highways experts at Telford & Wrekin Council wrote that they would have “safety concerns” with a new exit.

They added that the road layout had been intended to stop drivers trying to turn right across the busy road.

But they added that no information had been provided on the subject of traffic movements so they “cannot say whether it would be supported in principle or not.

“Assuming it could be supported it would have to be redesigned to utilise the existing accesses.”

Ecological information was also “incomplete and fails to provide an accurate assessment of the biodiversity value of the application site.”

Council planners refused the application because “insufficient information has been submitted to demonstrate that the proposed drive-through collection lane and associated access arrangements can be accommodated without resulting in adverse impacts upon highway safety, parking provision, servicing arrangements, site circulation and the operation of the surrounding highway network.”

Residents in the area had also objected.

One wrote: “The area is already overloaded with fast food outlets and adding additional drive through will only encourage more late night traffic into a residential area which is already experiencing excessive and disruptive traffic noise pollution.”

Another resident added: “For the last two years we’ve been experiencing great issues with large groups of cars gathering to race up and down the A518 most nights until the early hours of the morning.

“I really feel that this plan will just add to the currently unacceptable level of noise and traffic that locals are having to endure.”

One scheme supporter wrote that it was a “great idea”, a “very nice restaurant” and would be a “wonderful addition to the local area of Muxton.”

Planning agent Mat Design Limited, of Eccleston, St Helens, told planners that the scheme was a “proportionate and sensitively designed enhancement to the existing Clock Tower restaurant”

Writing on behalf of applicant S Khera the agent said the layout “has been configured to provide a logical and safe vehicular route through the site for drive-thru users, with vehicles circulating to the rear/side of the building and merging safely onto New Trench Road.”

They added that the proposed drive-thru exit was positioned to maximise separation from conflict points within the wider site and to provide a safe and intuitive merge arrangement onto New Trench Road.

“The proposal is not anticipated to prejudice the safe operation of the adjacent highway network, nor materially impact the operational performance of nearby junctions including Donnington Roundabout.

“Given the ancillary nature of the proposal and anticipated reassignment of existing customer trips, the development is not expected to generate traffic levels requiring substantive off-site highway mitigation works.”

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