Impassioned pleas by local councillors failed to stop controversial plans for a new McDonald’s in Rhyl after they were approved by the slimmest of margins.
Denbighshire Council’s planning committee voted 8-7 in favour of the plans to build a new McDonald’s restaurant on the site of the former Crown Bard pub on Ffordd Derwen in the town.
It will bring 65 full-time equivalent jobs and breathes new life into a site left vacant for more than four years.
The proposals were not universally welcomed, despite officers recommending approval of the scheme.
There have been flooding concerns, with the site being in a C1 flood zone, worries about increased traffic problems on the A525 and tributary roads, litter, the effects on obesity and the fate of mature trees and wildlife.