New KFC and Greggs bakery approved for Mold town centre but concerns around traffic raised

Mold town centre is to gain a KFC restaurant and Greggs bakery, despite traffic concerns.

Flintshire Council’s planning committee has granted permission to TJ Morris, the company which owns Home Bargains, to change the use of the former Checkpoint car service centre on Chester Road.

Mold East Cllr Chris Bithell (Lab) said he accepted the proposal was popular and would bring jobs, but was concerned about the creation of a host traffic problems with the rugby club, cricket club, Home Bargains, Tesco and B&M all close by.

He said: “My concerns are shared by Mold Town Council, namely that this Is a very busy road. Chester Road is the busiest road in the town and probably one of the busiest roads in the county, the A451.

“Getting in and out of driveways on Chester Road or the side roads is very much impossible for much of the day as there are no gaps in the traffic.

“I was rather hoping we could ask for traffic lights to be placed at this particular junction to enable traffic to turn right.

“What’s happening now is people coming out of Tesco are skipping up and turning left or even going to the Wylfa roundabout and turning the other way because it is so difficult crossing traffic to turn right into town.”

And on the 3 metre acoustic barrier included in the plans he added: “For the people across the road looking out at this it’s going to be looking like at the Berlin Wall.”

Cllr Bithell suggested the vegetation in front of the site could be kept and enhanced.

Cllr Bithell’s traffic concerns were shared by Holywell Cllr Paul Johnson (Lab), Buckley Cllr Mike Peers (Ind), along with Gwernaffield and Gwernymynydd Cllr Adele Davies-Cooke (Con) who lives on the A451.

She said: “We have terrible trouble at times on this road with people coming off the A55 because there’s been a traffic accident and I just wondered whether that had been taken into consideration?

“Nearly every day there is something up. I’ve lived here for 21 years and it’s slowly got worse over time.”

Despite councillors’ traffic concerns, it was still felt the development should go ahead and the application was approved.

The development will see a sandwich shop and bakery in one unit, and a restaurant / hot food takeaway in another, which will create 16 full-time jobs once operational.

The opening hours will be 8am to 10pm, and there is no ‘drive through’ feature.

Mold has been without a Greggs since its High Street store closed in 2019, and earlier this year KFC listed the town as a potential venue for a new restaurant on its website.

By Rory Sheehan – Local Democracy Reporter