New bid to tackle traffic chaos at McDonald’s in Burgess Hill

Burgess Hill Town Council leader Robert Eggleston revealed at a council meeting on Monday night (January 27), that he and fellow town councillors, Tofojjul Hussain and Joseph Foster, had met with the managing director of the McDonald’s franchise to discuss the plan.

He said: “The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the continuing congestion issues at the McDonald’s roundabout and to see if a commercial solution could be found.

“A proposal was put forward by Ismet Turen which involved the creation of a second serving lane off the roundabout as this would double the number of customers being served through the drive-thru.

“The restaurant would be willing to explore this option seriously, but to make it work the second lane would need to have its access from the car park.

“As members know, McDonald’s is a private commercial business and the adjoining car park is owned by Mid Sussex District Council.

“For this proposal to proceed it would be necessary for MSDC to grant access to the restaurant via its car park; and fund the cost of creating the access from the rear of the car park onto the McDonald’s site.

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“On December 20, I wrote to the senior officers of MSDC with an outline of Ismet Turen’s proposal and it is currently with the divisional leaders for parking and planning to consider.

“On January 7, I was advised that I will get a response later this month.”

The proposal suggests there are effectively two lanes off the roundabout which could be used as the drive-thru.

Currently, there is one lane, the proposal suggests making the car park lane a second overflow lane for the drive-thru.

Motorists would order at an order point at the rear of McDonald’s and then rejoin the drive-thru.

They would need access back in by removing some of the paving between the car park and the restaurant to create the entry point.

It would mean that at times of congestion vehicles would have a lane to move into rather than clogging up the entrance to the car park off the roundabout.

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