Yet another late night fast food outlet looks set to get retrospective planning permission next month from Lancaster City Council, even though concerns have been raised about the possibility that granting the license will add to noise and litter problems in the area.
The news comes just as Lancaster City Council has scored badly in a new survey into litter problems carried out by Keep Britain Tidy.
Lancaster Council’s Planning Committee meets early next month (6 October) and among the applications is yet another to retrospectively grant the restaurant at 66 Penny Street, Lancaster 
(PDF 15 KB) permission to operate as another fast food outlet with a license to stay open until 3.00am.
Local businesses have objected to the plans: the management of CityBlock strongly object due detrimental impact of the proposal on the amenities of the occupiers of CityBlock caused by late night disturbance. and also argue that the use would not accord with Policy S7 of the Lancaster District Local Plan. The owners of fashion shop Edwards have also objected, concerned at the loss of a retail outlet and increase in litter due to take away use.
But council staff have recommended supporting the application, arguing it would be difficult to sustain a refusal given the town centre location of the site, the other similar uses on this street, the recent appeal decision and the absence of any justifiable objection from statutory consultees.
News of the application for yet another fast food outlet in the town centre comes just as Keep Britain Tidy released the results of a two year litter survey which showed Lancaster scored poorly.
In the Extended Local Environmental Quality Survey, carried out over two years in every English local authority, half of England was found to have unacceptable levels of litter with Lancaster assesesed as ‘Unsatisfactory’ for both litter and detritus, but apparently doing well in the battle against grafitti and fly tipping, despite the problems highlighted recently in The Lancaster and Morecambe Citizen.
(The Daily Telegraph has published the reuslts so far in full, which is a good job as the Department of the Environment (Defra) seems to have forgotten its own accessibility guidelines and published them in a totally unreadable format).
Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said the news that some 187 councils, which includes Lancaster, had unsatisfactory levels of litter was “unacceptable”.
“The results of this report show that more needs to be done to tackle the problem of litter in this country,” he said. “Clearly the levels of litter nationwide are unacceptable.”
Keep Britain Tidy, which recently launched The Big Tidy Up – a month long litter blitz – to try to clean up the country, points out that fast food waste and packaging are one of several items often complained about, along with pizza boxes, cans, crisps and cigarette butts.
It seems Council guidance over planning means little can be done to stop more fast food outlets opening in town — and further adding to the city’s litter problems.
• Read the planning application for 66 Penny Street, Lancaster (PDF 15 KB)
• View the Daily Telegraph listing of Councils scores on littering
• Keep Britain Tidy