American fried chicken multinational chain Popeyes can build a new restaurant and 'drive-thru' in central Swindon.

However, it does need to cross some t's with Swindon Borough Council planners.

The chain has been permitted to build a restaurant and drive-thru in the car park of the Fleming Way Retail Park currently used by Halford and The Range home goods shop.

The new restaurant will be between the main road and The Range’s building, in the northeast corner of the retail park, immediately abutting Fleming Way, at the furthest reach from the retail park entrance.

A 'drive-thru' route circles the building.

In its application, the company, founded in Louisiana in the early 1970s says: “The restaurant/drive-thru unit is intended to add to the visual aesthetics of the overall Retail Park and complement the existing retail units.”

It says the business when up and running would create 25 new jobs and adds: “The location has been carefully considered to ensure safe vehicle circulation around the drive-thru lane and customer car park, good access for pedestrians off Fleming Way and good visibility to attract potential customers.”

Initially lodged in March this year the application drew some concerns and criticism from both nearby residents and the borough council’s consultees and officers.

The ecologist, drainage engineer, landscape architect and highways officers at Euclid Street all objected to the plan.

One concern was the loss of 15 parking spaces - the new restaurant would increase the need for parking while reducing its availability.

A revised application, changing the planting scheme for the edge of the site, and a plan for providing sites away from the retail park for bio-diversity net gain meant some objections were dropped, and the highways officer said an objection would be dropped if the company could be conditioned to provide an acceptable car parking layout.

In approving the development planners wrote: “The proposal is also expected to be acceptable in terms of the visual amenity of the area, the residential amenity of neighbouring occupants, parking provision and the highways network, trees, ecology, land contamination and drainage, and achieve biodiversity net gain.

“A number of pre-commencement planning conditions are required to secure acceptable details prior to development.

Popeyes might be a new name to Swindon residents as its closest branches are in Reading and Oxford, having only ventured into the UK in 2021.

It has plans to open more than 300 new branches across the UK in the next few years.

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