Burger King has been given the greenlight to take over Topshop’s former store on the Strand.
Westminster City councillors voted four to one to approve the fast food giant’s application to build a five-storey takeaway near Charing Cross station during a meeting on Tuesday.
West End councillor Paul Fisher said it was the “right place” for a new hot food restaurant and takeaway. Opposition councillor Elizabeth Hitchcock backed it on the condition Burger King provides more information on how it plans to operate the store.
Little Venice councillor Sara Hassan broke ranks with her Labour colleagues to vote against it while planning committee chair councillor Jason Williams voted in favour.
Cllr Hassan challenged council officers’ suggestion Burger King would require a similar amount of deliveries and servicing as Topshop. She said: “I’m struggling to think of an alternative land use that would be more disruptive and require more servicing.”
She also questioned how council officers counted the number of eateries along the Strand after they said the area did not have an over-concentration of takeaways. Council officers said a supermarket would be more disruptive and clarified many of the food stores along the Strand were eat in. They said there were only four takeaways nearby.
Councillors backed officers’ request for a condition forcing Burger King to submit a servicing and operations plan as part of the approval after the fast food chain did not submit them. It comes as residents opposed the application.
In an objection letter, one resident said the shop would “detract from the beauty and prestige” of the conservation area.
Another wrote: “The noise caused by the hot food takeaway and associated air handling unit, kitchen extract fan, two smaller ancillary fans, four air conditioning condensers and two catering condensing units will have a significantly detrimental effect on our quiet living in this quiet residential and conservation area.”
Burger King’s top development officer Marc Balding told the committee the operation would bring a “new lease of life” to a unit he said had been vacant for three years and add 40 jobs to the area.
He added: “Whilst the site is on a busy commercial thoroughfare, we acknowledge that there are neighbouring residential properties in the vicinity and that concerns have been raised by residents in the building’s rear, which we take very seriously.”
He said cooking odours would be filtered “to a very high level” via a vertical extract to stop smells from escaping and operating hours reduced to minimise noise levels.
The council imposed an 11pm cut-off for takeaways and is banning fast food deliveries from the site in a bid to curb noise disturbances. It also said a noise assessment found back-of-house operations would fall within the council’s noise thresholds.
The takeaway and eat in restaurant will range over five storeys and provide space for more than 100 people to eat in. The ground floor will be used as an ordering and dining area with additional seating on the first floor.
Back-of-house operations will take up the lower ground and basement levels and include a new extractor fan and four air conditioning condensers as well as two smaller ancillary fans. The proposal also includes stripping back the existing black cladding to reveal the stonework underneath.
Meanwhile, the proposal for a state-of-the-art advertisement board in Leicester Square that would be the first of its kind in Europe has been withdrawn. No reason was given for the withdrawal.
