Another drive-thru for Preston as Starbucks submit plans for fourth site in Asda car park

The supermarket giant has submitted plans to build a Starbucks outlet in a corner of its huge car park on Pittman Way, off Eastway, creating up to 20 new jobs.

If the application is approved by the council it could be the company's fourth drive-thru in Preston - Blue Bell Way, Blackpool Road and the Docks are already established - to add to three other Starbucks in the city in Fishergate, the Railway Station and the Capitol Centre.

With rivals Costa also having three drive-thru's and three sit-in restaurants – two more drive-thru’s are under construction at Lea and near the old Saddle Inn - the city is fast becoming Lancashire’s coffee drinking capital.

Euro Garages, the Blackburn-based forecourts company which bought Asda in 2021, has lodged the application with the planning department for a single storey unit in the South-west corner of the Fulwood site, on a spur of land which projects into the adjacent woodland. The building would also host sit-in customers, with space for 30.

It would only mean the net loss of 68 car parking spaces on a site where there is currently room for almost 700 vehicles. A planning document submitted by the company reveals that at its busiest times the car park is only around half full.

The EG Group, owned by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, wants to open the drive-thru between 7am and 10pm on Monday to Saturday, even though the supermarket and its petrol station are 24-hour operations, apart from Sundays. If successful then Fulwood would become the 14th Asda supermarket in the country to open a Starbucks drive-thru since March last year.

A planning report says: "The applicant has secured permission for many Starbucks coffee shops in Asda car parks around the country. The facility will expand the range of services available at the Asda store, improving the retail experience and providing new employment opportunities."

The company says the drive-thru would be of "high quality appearance." The site is screened from Eastway by trees and CCTV cameras would be installed to "discourage anti-social behaviour in the vicinity of the unit." Litter-picking patrols would go out three times a day "to maintain the quality of the environment."