Why would Greene King do the planning application on behalf of McDonalds?
Both McDonalds and Greene King know that Molly Maguires is a stupid place to put a fast food drive-through restaurant. The pub and its car park adjoin a complicated stretch of road that is notorious for near misses locally. It is also next door to the main bus garage and bus terminating points. If Greene King do the application it gets judged as a pub and not a fast food take-away. If permission had been granted, Greene King could then sell the site to McDonalds who would also inherit the planning permission – because of the antiquated Class A3 planning regulation – which doesnt distinguish between a pub and a fast food take away restaurant. So McDonalds would get all the planning permissions they needed without having to justify them. Pub regulars and local residents were incensed by this outrageous behaviour and formed The Save Molly Maguires Campaign group. This is what we did: March 2000 – The Campaign Gets Going • Local people exposed what was really going on in the local press. •
