Tipperary County Council will make a decision on a planning application from McDonalds for a Drive Thru restaurant in Thurles by April 14th. The deadline for submissions from the public is now March 24th. The council initially received the application in September but after the first deadline for submissions the council requested a detailed Traffic Queuing analysis regarding how the proposed Drive Thru would accommodate traffic.
In late December 2024, McDonalds agents submitted a traffic queuing analysis that reveals that the proposed site in Clongour, Thurles has capacity for 32 cars in the queue before the queue would possibly impinge on the local public road network. The company anticipates that the maximum queue line over any 24-hour period would be 26 cars between the times of 5pm and 6pm. The company says that it’s methods of processing orders and the existing space is adequate for the planned single story Drive Thru restaurant at Clongour adjacent to the N62 and the roadway that is to be extended to form the Thurles Inner Relief Road.
Submissions from local residents have previously raised a number of concerns about the suitability of the site for a Drive Thru fast food restaurant in a largely residential area, such as possible traffic congestion, noise, litter, anti-social behaviour, damage to the adjacent River Walk and Biodiversity, obesity and proximity of childcare and educational establishments, that the outlet could pose a threat to existing fast food outlets in the town and that the outlet conflicts with the Thurles Local Area Plan adopted last year. The planning reference number on the council website is 2460829.
