'Absolutely horrendous': Northampton retail park shopper exasperated by constant traffic jams 'caused by cafe drive-thru'

Regular traffic jams around a Northampton retail park apparently caused by a cafe drive-thru have caused a frustrated shopper to call for change.

Shaukat Khan visits Sixfields Retail Park often to pick up prescriptions from Boots or online shopping orders from Next and M&S but has been left exasperated by the queues.

The queuing system around the Costa Coffee drive-thru quickly fills up, which then blocks the car park, causing more jams that sometimes go as far back as Gambrel Road.

"Especially during peak hours and during the Christmas period, it was absolutely horrendous with people going in and out," he said.

"Once it got to the stage where I couldn't wait any longer so I turned around in the queue, to the annoyance of some drivers I'm sure, and went home as it was that bad."

Northamptonshire County Council believes the coronavirus pandemic is behind the surge in demand for takeaway coffees and urged the owners to manage queues better.

A spokesperson for Northamptonshire County Council said: “It is our understanding that the queues and consequent congestion in the area are being caused by a surge in demand for takeaway establishments, influenced by the recent national lockdown announcement.

“Previous planning decisions and advice would not have taken account of the additional traffic caused by the current COVID restrictions.

“As was the case with the previous lockdown, we would ask that individual establishments manage traffic queues within their sites so as to minimise any impact on the public highway.”

But Mr Khan thinks the issue dates back much further that to before the nearby Lidl was demolished.

The Duston resident think it is down to a lack of foresight when the planning permission for the drive-thru was approved.

But the county council did raise concerns about the impact of the new site on the highways network when it was submitted in 2017 and changes were made to the plans in the hope of easing the issues.

Mr Khan said: "I don't think they envisaged at all what it was going to be like when it opened as it's an absolute nightmare.

"They could have another entrance or another way to come out of the drive-thru or make it one way maybe - there has to be something they can do to fix it."