McDonald's plan to open new Fulford Road restaurant in York

McDonald's has submitted plans to City of York Council for a new diner in Fulford Road in what used to be Iceland supermarket and next to budget retailer Aldi.

The fast food giant says as well as building alterations it wants to extend the unit’s opening hours to 7am-11pm for seven days a week.

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They say they want to create a takeaway and restaurant with about 110 covers in the 7,700 sq ft retail unit.

Elsewhere in the city McDonald's already has branches in Blake Street in the city centre and on the outskirts at Clifton Moor as well as at the Designer Outlet, Monks Cross and Poppleton.

In their application to the council they say: "The proposals would be acceptable in terms of design and appearance, enhancing the appearance of the unit, and would result in an improvement in accessibility to the site for pedestrians.

"The proposals would help to preserve the significance of the adjacent Conservation Area, as well as the setting of nearby listed buildings and the Fulford Cross scheduled ancient monument.

"In the same context, and taking into account the conclusions of the accompanying odour and noise assessments, it has been demonstrated that the proposals would not have any significant adverse impact upon residential amenity."

McDonald's employees at one of their restaurants (Image: Newsquest)

They say that McDonald’s is committed to tackling litter from its restaurants and it is company policy to conduct a minimum of three daily litter patrols, whereby employees pick up not only McDonald’s packaging, but also any other litter that may have been discarded in a 150m vicinity of a restaurant. This may be expanded to suit local needs at the Fulford site.

As The Press reported last year, signs went up outside the old Iceland to say that the site was being let by agents Briggs Burley.

Asked about the implications for the future of the supermarket, an Iceland spokesperson said at the time: “Across Iceland and The Food Warehouse, we have a portfolio of over UK 1,000 stores and continually review the retail experience offered to our customers as local shopping patterns change and shop leases expire.

"Customers can choose to shop at our Food Warehouse Store in Foss Islands Retail Park, less than a mile away.”

Iceland had also announced that it was permanently shutting six UK stores, in Bromsgrove, Basingstoke, Rhyl, Newport on the Isle of Wight, Bristol and Bangor.

You can read and comment on the planning application here.