Drive-thru coffee shop coming to Bilston supermarket’s car park
A drive-thru coffee shop will be built next to a Bilston supermarket after plans were given the green light by a council.
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Wolverhampton Council has backed a move by Motor Fuel Group to open the ‘drive-thru coffee shop’ at the Morrisons supermarket in Bilston.
The plans also include new electric vehicle charging points.
The drive-thru and charging points would be built at the rear of the supermarket’s car park next to the existing petrol garage, representing a loss of nearly 50 parking spaces.
A report from the council's planning department outlining the approval said: “The proposed drive-thru coffee shop is acceptable in terms of design, scale and mass.
“This site is not a visually sensitive location and the development will not present harm to the character of the area.
“The proposed use would provide an additional service to existing customers and in doing so would support the continued use of the primary Morrisons retail store.
“Due to the large scale of the existing car park the loss of 47 car parking spaces should not have a significant impact on the superstore.
“The development would not undermine existing facilities or cause harm to nearby centres.”
Motor Fuel Group agreed a £2.5bn deal with Morrisons in 2024 to buy more than 300 of the supermarket’s petrol forecourts.
The forecourt operator recently applied to Wolverhampton Council to change the licence at its garage at the store next to the Black Country Route in Bilston to allow alcohol to be sold 24/7.
The local authority’s licensing department had called for the 24-hour move to be refused over ‘insufficient’ information in the application on how the longer hours would not add to existing alcohol problems.
Wolverhampton is a “regional outlier” for alcohol-related harm and hospital admissions due to alcohol, according to the city’s public health department, while also having one of the highest alcohol-specific death rates in the UK.
Bilston High Street, Church Street and the Morrisons supermarket also makes up what the council calls a ‘cumulative impact zone’ because of the area’s higher crime and disorder rates and the ‘density’ of pubs, clubs, late-night venues and takeaways.
A new licence was granted for the petrol station in February which allowed the sale of alcohol from 6am to 11pm and late-night refreshments – hot and cold food and drinks – from 11pm to 5am.
