Fast food giant KFC has this week said it is not planning to open a restaurant in Highbridge despite rumours that it’s considering a site next to the town’s Aldi supermarket and Travelodge hotel.
The proposed drive-thru on the Isleport Business Park in Bennett Road is located next to Highbridge’s Travelodge hotel, which opens in October, and the new Aldi supermarket, which opens this August.
Speaking to Burnham-On-Sea.com on Wednesday, a spokesperson at KFC’s HQ confirmed: “We have nothing in the pipeline for Highbridge at the moment.”
Separately, it has been confirmed that a new KFC drive-thu is opening at Sedgemoor Services near Burnham-On-Sea.
McDonalds considered the Highbridge site last year, but it told Burnham-On-Sea.com that it “has no confirmed plans to open a new McDonald’s restaurant in Highbridge.”
The owners of Isleport Business Park won approval last year for ‘outline planning permission’ to change the use of the site, next to the new Aldi store, to allow hot food takeaway sales and to enable a drive-thru to be operated there, as shown on the plan above.
The latest comments mean it is still not known what food brand will open there, even though the new Highbridge Aldi store will open in August 2018, with Aldi’s recruitment website already promoting scores of new job opportunities.
Sedgemoor District Council approved plans for the two Aldi and Travelodge developments last year.
Construction of the new 1,804 square-metre Aldi store and adjacent roads began in January.
An Aldi spokeswoman said: “Our new Highbridge store will create up to 30 jobs for the community.”
The spokeswoman added that a mixture of part-time and full-time positions will be created.
And Travelodge’s new 75-bed Highbridge hotel will open in October 2018.
As Burnham-On-Sea.com reported here, Travelodge is to build a four-storey hotel with 75 bedrooms, 75 parking spaces, and a cafe/bar at the site.
