New McDonalds 24-hour drive-thru and takeaway to open in Swindon

The burger chain has been given permission to partially knock down the old Pizza Hut branch, in Shaw Ridge Leisure Park, and convert the rest of the building and the site into a hot food takeaway and drive-thru.

The building has been empty since the Pizza Hut branch closed suddenly in late January 2025 with no prior warning.

The submitted plans show that the main building will be gutted of all internal walls and will be made shorter than the existing building; the roof line would also be changed, removing the “hut” appearance of the mansard roof with a smaller, wide, flat roof where a ridge would normally be.

The floor plan does not show any seating area or division between a customer area and kitchen. The fact that the application specified the new use will be a “takeaway” and does not add the word restaurants suggests it may be only used for takeaway and drive-thru customers and possibly delivery services.

As well as creating a drive-thru route, McDonalds has permission to cut 16 parking spaces, reducing them from 45 to 29.

That reduction, and the concern that might mean queuing cars impact other users trying to get into the leisure site, such as other restaurants and a Cineworld cinema, led some neighbouring businesses to object to the plans.

Luke Jacobs, manager of The Ridge restaurant, said: "Our concerns that putting a drive-through McDonald’s on this site will cause issues coming onto the site and blocking access and also causing queues of traffic out onto the main road which is already congested at busy times."

More than three dozen residents wrote in to planners about McDonalds’ proposal, nearly all of them opposed.

Common themes among objectors were the impact of traffic on the area, which many said was already very busy, and the over-proliferation of takeaway food business, and McDonalds branches specifically.

A number of objectors noted that there is already a branch at the link centre just across Whitehill Way from the old Pizza Hut building. Noise, litter and odours were also concerns.

Two residents supported the change in order to bring the building back to use, with one saying that the “hut” element be retained.

Council planners said this was not a designated status and was heavily associated with the previous occupant’s business and, therefore, it is reasonable for a replacement operator to seek design not linked with a competing business.