Derbyshire drive-through restaurants to be built because 'shift workers need stodge'
Plans to build a Derbyshire drive-through fast food restaurant and coffee shop have been approved to give prospective workers “stodge” to fill up on after 12-hour shifts. At an Erewash Borough Council meeting last night (September 18) councillors approved plans for a fast food restaurant and a coffee shop drive-throughs on the former Stanton Ironworks site off Lows Lane and what will be Exhibition Way.
The approved drive-throughs prompted concerns about air quality and public health issues, but Cllr Dave Doyle said the venues would meet the crucial needs of prospective shift workers. He said: “They want sugar, Mars, chocolate. You need food to get back to your 12-hour shift.
“It is here to feed the workers and workers need stodge. I am not going to walk to a bistro after a night shift, I want a kebab. Without turning around I can say I don’t believe people in the gallery have ever had to work a night shift.”
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This prompted a call from a member of the public that this insinuation was “insulting”.
Tara Brassil, from Risley, said the drive-through plans conflicted with council policies for public health improvement and air quality problems. She said the idea that the drive-throughs would cater for the needs of workers at the under-development warehouses on the former ironworks site was “misplaced” when the facilities relied on people driving to them.
Ms Brassil said the scheme would “take away from local businesses with them inevitably drawing people out of the town centres you are hoping to improve”. She said that with “diabetes and obesity at epidemic levels” the scheme should be rejected.
Lois Partridge, agent for the applicants, Verdant Regeneration, owners of the New Stanton Park site, set to create 4,000 jobs, said the scheme would provide vital supporting infrastructure. She said Ilkeston was underserved in terms of ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging points (charging in 30 minutes), with three in total in the town and one at Junction 25 of the M1.
Ms Partridge said: “We can only encourage electric vehicle use by providing this infrastructure. The drive-throughs would provide somewhere to eat without people having to drive somewhere else. Many will work and many would have driven further afield.”
Two commercial units would also be built as part of the plans, which Ms Partridge said could well become creches, gyms, doctors surgeries as opposed to office or industrial business units. Cllr Ann Mills said the site would be more “sustainable” if the facilities were not drive-through eateries, with New Stanton Park workers still able to walk to the venues.
Cllr Kevin Miller said: “This ticks all the boxes. The fact that people don’t have to drive to the site is good for the environment. It has everything we need.” He said people could drive through the eateries and then park their electric vehicles to charge, rather than park their vehicles to charge and then go inside to eat.
Cllr Mick Pace said there was a “dearth” of electric charging points in Erewash and said “anything that brings employment to the area is welcome”. The scheme would provide 125 parking spaces (22 electric) and two commercial units, creating 106 jobs. Neither of the drive-through operators have been identified.