Residents of Earl’s Court are fighting plans for a 24-hour McDonald’s on their high street.
Objectors say the application in Earl’s Court Road will attract intoxicated people to the area and create more problems for locals.
They also fear extending the hours of the restuarnt near Earl’s Court Tube station will set a precedent and lead to more stores staying open into the early morning hours.
Some 166 objections were lodged against the McDonald’s licensing application to Kensington and Chelsea Council, claiming it would lead to more litter, petty crime and anti-social behaviour. The take-away currently runs until 2am every day of the week.
One person wrote: “The council needs to acknowledge that this is residential. We have a public spaces protection order and the police are only on duty until 11pm so any licence beyond that time must be cancelled immediately and new applications turned down.”
Another wrote: “[This] will increase the amount of people hanging around, drug users, alcoholics, in an area that very much needs help to counter this.”
A third wrote: “Earl’s Court area is already infiltrated sadly with many drug users, littering the street – we need to make Earl’s Court Road better – rejuvenate it with nice establishments, clean and calm to encourage the and help the wider community not drag it down which is what longer opening for these establishments would cause. Drunk/drug user congregating and littering etc.”
The application also received two letters of support saying it will create and support jobs locally and help the local night time economy. Both called on strict conditions on delivery drivers, which they claim park dangerously, drive on the wrong side of the street and cause more litter and noise.
McDonald’s said it has systems in place to promote the local licensing objectives. They also promised to hire security guards “when required”, provide staff with mobile panic buttons and to train staff on substance abuse awareness and the legal requirements and restrictions on running 24/7.
It’s also vowed to carry out regular litter patrols, implement a dispersal policy and a policy to minimise the disturbance to residents caused by delivery drivers.
The council’s planning department said it had no objections to the application but said allowing McDonald’s to vary its licence would be a breach in planning control. The department said a planning application to run 24-hour a day was refused in December 30 last year because of a condition on the original planning permission limiting usage to between 8am and midnight.
They called for a new planning application to be submitted. They also said the restaurant is able to serve late-night refreshments until 2am every night.
Kensington and Chelsea Council’s licensing committee will meet on Thursday, November 20, to review the application.
