Starbucks Highbridge plans may need central government

KMW Trading Ltd. and Cobra Coffee Ltd. jointly applied in February to build a Starbucks drive-thru on the Oaktree Business Park, located off the A38 Bristol Road to the north of the town.

Somerset Council’s planning committee north (which handled major applications in the former Sedgemoor area) voted to grant permission when the plans were discussed in Bridgwater on Tuesday afternoon (October 8).

But a final decision may need to be taken by communities secretary Angela Rayner MP after National Highways raised concerns about the capacity of the nearby Edithmead roundabout, which links the town to the M5.

The drive-thru will be constructed at the southern end of the business park, next to the existing Howdens store and within walking distance of the town’s McDonald’s outlet, which opened in mid-September.

The outlet will have 19 car parking spaces (along with two disabled bays and one space for motorcycles) and could create up to 30 full- or part-time jobs for the local area.

The scheme attracted no objection from Burnham and Highbridge Town Council and very few letters of objection from local residents during the official consultation period.

However, National Highways has placed a ‘holding objection’ on the plans, arguing that any further development should be put off to allow for an assessment of traffic levels to and from the M5 via the Edithmead roundabout.

A spokesman said: “National Highways recommends that planning permission should not be granted for a period of six months.

“This is to provide time for the agreement of assessment inputs and the completion of a cumulative impact assessment for the Edithmead roundabout and junction 22.

“This is necessary to determine the impact of the proposal on the continued safe operation of the strategic road network and its assets, and thereby allow us to provide the council with fully informed advice.”

National Highways had a similar ‘holding objection’ (or ‘holding position’) in place until the council had agreed the design of an upgrade scheme for the Edithmead roundabout – meaning that only a certain number of homes within the nearby Isleport Grove development could be brought forward.

The council is currently awaiting the outcome of a joint funding bid with North Somerset Council to the Department for Transport (DfT), which if successful would provide millions of pounds to improve the safety and the capacity of the A38 between the Edithmead roundabout and Bristol Airport.

The council revealed in February that the roundabout upgrade alone would cost at least £6.4m, and could not be implemented until at least the summer of 2025 to prevent any clash with improvements to the Dunball roundabout near junction 23 (which will finally get under way on November 11).

Councillor Bob Filmer (who represents the neighbouring Brent division) urged the committee to support the plans when it convened in Bridgwater on Tuesday afternoon (October 8).

He said: “This is allocated land within the Local Plan for this sort of development, using an existing access off the A38.

“It’s bringing good investment into our area – it’s a national operator that wants to come in.

“National Highways has been holding us up, and we’ve been trying to work with them to be reasonable on this.

“There will be a less than one per cent increase in the amount of traffic using this roundabout – it’s one extra vehicle every six minutes, which is not going to make a major difference to that site.

“There is an existing major route network scheme that is coming through to completely enhance that area and improve things.

“That’s government-funded, and National Highways should be aware for that. They should be part of the people pushing to get it actually sorted, rather than holding up investment into Somerset.”

After a short debate, the committee voted unanimously to approve the plans, with the proviso that the application would be referred to the government for a final decision if National Highways did not remove its holding objection.