Costa’s plan for Kildare drive-thru fail again
Costa was established in 1971 in London and employs 1,500 people on the island of Ireland
PLANS BY the Costa Coffee franchise in Monread, Naas to install a drive-thru facility at its location in the Globe Retail Park have been dashed again, after planners refused it for the second time in just two months.
A first application was submitted in June, but was returned as invalid after just four days following the company’s failure to ensure that plans for a bin storage area were included in the public notices as required by the .
The application from parent company MBCC Foods (Ireland) c/o John Spain Associates in Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2 was almost immediately refiled three days later.
However, the planners were just as emphatic in August, and refused the reapplication on three grounds: zoning, siting and traffic.
They ruled that the concept of a drive-thru ‘is silent within the zoning matrix … therefore the proposed use must be assessed against county policies’. A core strategy of the county development plan is ‘to facilitate the sustainable intensification and consolidation of Naas Town Centre’.
‘The principle of this use [drive-thru] is not supported by any current policy and should therefore be refused,’ the planners stated.
With regards to its siting, the application noted that many of the customers at the existing café purchase takeaways, and that offering a drive-thru ‘will improve efficiency in operation’.
However, the planners ruled that, despite similar grants in other counties, the site is beside the AppleGreen hub on the former Cemex site, which has already got its permission for a drive-thru.
Also, because this Costa branch shares its car park with a retail warehouse, its planned reduction of 20 car parking spaces to facilitate this development ‘to provide for more road and hard surfacing is considered unfortunate’.
Finally, the planners pointed out that because of the proposed site’s proximity to the Monread Interchange (J9) as the primary gateway to Naas, ‘it is difficult to apprehend how the proposed development, which has the capabilities to serve an increased number of patrons, will not result in intensification of the existing use’.
The plan was to add a canopy and service hatch on the Monread Road side of the existing franchise, as well as a 3.5m wide drive-thru lane, with associated landscaping, order hatch, directional signs and two menu boards.
In all, MBCC estimated that this would remove 20 of the existing parking spaces onsite.
In its original application letter, the company acknowledged that ‘Costa Coffee is primarily a dine-in café’, but that ‘as part of ongoing efforts to innovate and improve customer experience … we are expanding our service offerings.
‘The introduction of drive-thru lanes has proved beneficial in Navan and Portlaoise [and] represent less than 20% of total sales. The impact on traffic flow has been minimal.
‘Recently Costa has received planning permission for new drive-thru locations in Bray, Waterford, Drogheda, Castlebar Tramore, Finglas and Enniskillen. Only 10% of Costa’s 150 location across Ireland have been deemed suitable for the introduction of a drive-thru lane.’
Costa was formed by an Italian family in London in 1971 and employs 1,500 people in Ireland, north and south.
