PLANS for the Forest’s first KFC drive-thru restaurant on the edge of Coleford have been approved.

The proposal by NNA Ltd was approved by the Forest Council’s development management committee approved by five votes to three.

The award-winning company, run by Gerard Nicholas of Longhope already has around a dozen restaurants across three counties.

The application for a site at Perrygrove Road, which was considered on Tuesday (May 12), also includes two industrial units.

The committee was told they were deciding on land use, not on a specific operator.

Planning officer Suzanne Hares said: “Whilst the operator for the drive-thru restaurant is shown on the plans, what we're considering is the land use of the site.

“The operator itself isn't fixed and it could change later on.”

The applicants say the restaurant would create 35 jobs – 12 full-time and 23 part-time – with more to follow from the industrial units.

He said: “The applicant lives in the Forest, he has pride in the area and a sense of responsibility for it.

He is an award-winning franchisee and that is because of the way in which his staff and his units are looked after.

He said the applicant “takes seriously” issues such as litter, behaviour and relations with police and councils.

The approach to noise, odours and ecology had all been updated along with further to ensure no other sites are available.

He said objections were taken seriously but there were almost as many expressions of support, 63 per cent of which had a Coleford postcode.

Committee chair Cllr Dave Wheeler (Green, Newland and Sling ) said he had asked his constituents what they thought.

“It’s split straight down the middle again,” he said. “Fifty per cent of the people don’t want to see it and 50 per cent do .

“One of the most interesting comments I got was: ‘the Forest should be coming into the 21st century.’”

Coleford councillors Clive Elsmore and Ian Whitburn expressed concern about whether the junction between Perrygrove Road and Tufthorn Road

could cope with the extra traffic.

Cllr Whitburn said: “This obviously could turn out to be a busy restaurant

“(The entrance) does seem a very small and awkward.”

No proposals were put forward to alter the junction, a Gloucestershire Highways officer told the committee.

He said: “It's deemed to be acceptable in terms of its width and the angle of approach towards Tuftthorn Avenue, its full 90 degrees, which is perfect.

It's more than five metres wide, 5.5 in fact, maybe six in places.

“We have no concern that that bit of road is incapable of taking traffic in a safe manner.”

He said the pedestrian entrance would mean fewer people would have to drive from nearby homes and industrial estate.

He said: “The local highways authority doesn't have any residual concerns about the safety of the existing junction and, in fact, improvement to pedestrian accessibility have further made our case that the site could actually be accessed in a safe and sustainable manner.”