Jobs boost as plans revealed for land
that the new development could potentially employ around 50 staff (FTE) on both a full and part time basis, with the two drive thru uses providing a 36 Full Time Equivalent of new employment opportunities for local people.”
The statement reads: “The Springkerse Retail Park is a designated Commercial Centre and provides a range of large retail units primarily selling bulky goods, but also contains three further drive thru units operated by Burger King, Costa Coffee and Tim Hortons.
“The site has been allocated as an employment site and has been awaiting a use for at least 10 years.
It is clearly a long term vacant development site.”
Despite its long standing development allocation, there have only been two planning applications submitted for the site - both were submitted by the current applicants.
The first proposed a mix of class 4 (business and light industrial) and class 5 (general industrial) units and a drive thru unit and was withdrawn last June.
A subsequent application was approved by Stirling Council in September 2022.
This was a detailed planning permission which approved the erection of five class 4 units, five class 5 units and a drive thru unit along with the formation of a new access road and car parking.
However, the developer’s statement added: “Notwithstanding the very recent granting of planning permission, the applicant has amended the proposals for the site to include a second drive thru unit in the south east corner and the reconfiguration of the internal access roads and the row of industrial units.
“The proposals for the site have been amended to meet identified market demand for a second drive thru unit, and also to ensure that a viable development can be delivered. In this respect, the inclusion of the drive thru units are required to enable the delivery of the class 4 and 5 units on the site which will be speculative and at this stage, have no confirmed operator interest.
“In terms of site coverage, the drive thru element on the site will take up 0.44 hectares of the 0.953 hectare site, or 46 per cent. It should, however, be noted that 0.24 ha of the site already benefits from an existing drive thru permission and therefore the net increase in ‘non-employment’ uses on the site would be 0.2 ha. The current application proposals would therefore result in the loss of a further 0.2 ha of allocated employment land.
A decicion will be made on the plans in due course.