Shoppers who have visited Swansea's Fforestfach Retail Park over the last few days would have noticed there's change afoot, as construction work is taking place in preparation for a new arrival which will take up an area of Tesco Extra's car park.
A section of the car park has been cordoned off by fences, with diggers, JCBs and construction equipment spotted inside as building work begins to create a new McDonald's drive-thru restaurant, which Swansea Council's planning committee unanimously approved at a meeting on June 14, after hearing from officers and asking them questions.
The drive-thru will have a 95-seat ground floor restaurant, outdoor seating area, and employ 65 people. Get Swansea stories straight to your inbox with our newsletter.
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Three people objected to the drive-thru on the grounds of litter, anti-social behaviour, traffic, and noise and disturbance grounds. A planning report before the committee said the proposed use was acceptable at Parc Fforestfach, and that 560 parking spaces would serve the Tesco store and the McDonald's. Committee members were told the section of car park to be turned over to the new drive-thru - at the petrol station end of the retail park - was under-used, and set away from houses. You can read the full report by clicking here.
The new addition will come as a welcome one for the retail park, which currently has six empty units, There will soon be a seventh, as the retail park is set to lose yet another store in Homesense, which has announced it is quitting Swansea and relocating to Llanelli instead. The homewares store will be closing its doors for good at the retail park at the end of March and directly transferring to Trostre Retail Park. You can read more about that by clicking here.
Supermarket chain Aldi will also soon open its fifth store at the retail park in the old New Look unit, right next door to Tesco Extra. The German budget supermarket already has branches at Parc Tawe, Cwmdu, Gorseinon and Llansamlet. In June last year, Swansea Council granted planning permission to an applicant known only as the 'UK Warehouse Retail Fund' to reconfigure unit 12 and 13, to create a much larger base.
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