PLANS for a new Greggs drive-thru in Barrow have been given the go-ahead.

Westmorland and Furness Council has approved plans from Trinity Enterprise Centre Ltd to build a new Greggs drive thru at Cocken Villa on Walney Road, which could bring 20 full time equivalent jobs to the area.

The proposed branch will be located on a site which currently contains a Travelodge, a Dominos Pizza and a Costa Coffee outlet.

According to plans, the proposed Greggs will be open from 5am to 10pm from Monday to Saturday and will have operating hours of 7am to 6pm on Sundays.

Planning documents state: “The application site has lain undeveloped for a significant period of time. It is of no benefit to the surrounding community if it remains vacant.

“The surrounding area is becoming much more developed particularly in light of the new police station.”

According to planning documents the proposed site, is accessible to a ‘significant local employment base’, commuters using the A590, and people staying at the nearby Travelodge.

“The site is now highly accessible and strategically located and lends itself to a use which has good synergies with passing traffic”, plans add.

Planning documents state the proposed drive-thru will add 19 car parking spaces, two disabled car parking spaces and four-cycle spaces to the site.

Travelodge was the first to move to Cocken Villa in the early 2000s with the hotel chain being followed by Dominos in 2008 and then in 2018 Costa opened its drive-thru outlet at the site.

Greggs opened a new café on Portland Walk earlier this year. The opening comes after the bakery giant revealed plans to open up another 160 stores in 2024.

The group opened a record 220 new shops over 2023, with 33 closures and 42 relocations leaving it with 145 new sites on a net basis and taking its total estate to 2,473.

This planning application was approved on October 4.