Costa plans another drive-thru' in Preston

Costa Coffee wants to open a third drive-thru' in Preston after insisting motorists need more access to a brew.
The boarded-up Lea Gate Filling Station will be demolished and rebuilt.The boarded-up Lea Gate Filling Station will be demolished and rebuilt.
The boarded-up Lea Gate Filling Station will be demolished and rebuilt.

The UK’s largest coffee house chain is looking to open another outlet in the city on Blackpool Road in Lea.

Plans to completely rebuild the former Lea Gate Filling Station have been submitted to the council, with a Costa drive-thru' as part of the scheme.

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The company already serves motorists with a string of coffee shops attached to petrol stations in Preston. But the city only has two drive-thru's at the Fulwood Central shopping site in Eastway and the Queen Street retail park on Stanley Street.

In a statement to the council a planning consultant acting for developers Valley House Properties says: “It has been found in recent years that motorists’ needs are not provided for and there has, therefore, been a major growth in drive thru's.

“A model has been developed where drive thru’s have been attached to petrol filling stations and this is because there is a synergy between the uses by motorists stopping for fuel who may collect an item from the convenience store or, alternatively, stop for coffee in the adjacent Costa Coffee drive thru'.”

Costa already has around 20 outlets in Preston, with a further nine in South Ribble. The Blackpool Road site is on a busy arterial route passed by more than 10,000 vehicles a day.

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The plan is to demolish the Lea Gate garage and replace it with a 24-hour state-of-the-art facility with a convenience store and a separate Costa which will also operate around the clock.

The site previously had a planning application for a 32-bed hotel passed. The latest scheme is an upgrade of a similar plan for a new filling station submitted in 2017.

Costa Coffee has almost 2,500 UK outlets with a further 6,000 Costa Express vending facilities.

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