McDonald’s is set to get the green light to build a new business in the car park of a DIY giant in south Essex. 

If agreed upon, the restaurant will be open 24 hours, Monday through Sunday.

The fast food chain is proposing a new drive-thru restaurant at the car park site of the Homebase store, off London Road, Vange, in Basildon. It comes as the store has been placed on the market after the chain collapsed into administration.

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Basildon Council’s planning committee is set to give the plans the go-ahead at a meeting on December 4.

McDonald’s says that the new restaurant will create approximately 120 jobs with a mixture of part-time and full-time roles. The proposed new restaurant shares the wider Homebase car park, and the plans include three accessible bays, two grill bays, two electric vehicle charging bays, eight cycle parking spaces for customers, and four motorbike spaces.

Residents have raised concerns about an increase in traffic, antisocial behaviour, smell, and litter, raising 19 objections.

The land is classed as a green belt area, and McDonald’s has submitted “very special circumstances” to justify the development of the site.

The council officer’s report states: “The site is currently used for car parking and therefore already sees vehicular activity on the site, together with extensive car park lighting columns, and with its location on existing hardstanding, screened from the street scene, forming an urbanised character, the nature of change will have a limited impact on the openness of the green belt.

“The applicant has outlined within their planning statement that the ‘very special circumstances’ in this case are the economic and sustainability benefits of the proposed development, landscaping and site enhancements. These very special circumstances are discussed in detail in the officer’s assessment above. 

“On balance, it is considered that the harm to the green belt is limited by virtue of the site’s enclosed nature, existing use and moderate contribution to green belt purposes one and three, and this, together with the ‘very special circumstances’ outlined, is considered to outweigh the assessed harm to the green belt.”