Preston's third Costa coffee drive-thru given green light

Plans for the demolition and rebuilding of the Lea Gate petrol station on Blackpool Road have been passed by council officers.

The scheme includes the UK’s biggest coffee house chain building its third drive-thru in the city.

The run-down site, which has been a fuel stop for drivers for decades on the busy A583, is being completely cleared to make way for a state-of-the-art 24-hour filling station.

The application, on behalf of Valley House Properties, will have a four pump island, a new-build shop and the separate Costa drive-thru. It will also have 56 car parking spaces and will be open for fuel around the clock.

The developers say the garage will employ 18 full-time staff and three part-time.

The application is the latest in a long list of previous plans for the site dating back to 1999 when a drive-thru restaurant was passed by the council. In 2002 a 32-bedroom hotel was given permission on the land, but was never built. That had a drive-thru as did other applications in 2004, 2007 and 2017.

A report to the planning department said it had been found nationally that motorists’ needs were not being provided for. “There has, therefore, been a major growth in drive thrus.

“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.”