Diamonds, Champagne.....and Chips
Residents fear impact of new Burger King branch at Westfield
Residents living near Westfield say they are extremely concerned about the prospect of a Burger King opening up in the centre, saying it will lead to an increase in litter and will aggravate the already severe parking problems in the surrounding streets.
The fast-food restaurant is due to open up beneath Next on Wood Lane next month, despite Westfield’s earlier pronouncements that there would be no traditional fast-food outlets.
In August, the Guardian newspaper reported that McDonald’s and KFC had been red-carded and that plastic knives and polystyrene boxes had been banned from the centre. "All the restaurants will have proper crockery and cutlery," said Westfield’s Dave Slade. "It is not upmarket. It is just high quality".
Macfarlane Road resident Devon Richards said Westfield had gone back on their word: “They said there would be no fast food. It’s going to bring litter and I’m very concerned about the types of people it might attract. Why is it near Macfarlane Road when we’re already suffering?” he said, referring to the parking problems in the street since the shopping centre opened.
Another resident, Dominic Thomas, expressed a similar sentiment: “The potential litter, smells, and types of crowd (hooded teens?) have got the residents up in arms and we are waiting for Westfield's official response on this. The litter has already been an issue from the site and it looks to get worse still. I would like to stop fast food takeaway outlets such as Burger King from appearing at Westfield as this will open the floodgates to others such as Dominoes, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC etc. There are enough of these on Uxbridge Road.”
William Wake of the Macfarlane Road Residents’ Association said parking was bound to get worse and ways were being sought to stop yet more shoppers parking in the street. “The people, of course, who will be worst affected are those in the north end (of Macfarlane Road) and they are extremely concerned,” he said.
“Further there is a strong feeling that we already live in fast food heaven - there are already more than a dozen fast food outlets on the north side of the Green, and the tide of discarded cartons has long lapped up the south side of the street and is now likely to lap from the north,” he added.
We asked Burger King when they would be opening, why they had chosen to open up in Westfield and whether they would be doing anything to ensure litter from takeaway packaging did not become an issue.
A Burger King spokesperson said: “Burger King is the home of the quality burger where customers can choose to ‘Have it 100% Your Way’. We offer customers a wide range of menu options and passionately care about what goes into those menu choices.
“Following consultations with Westfield Shopping Centre we can confirm a new Burger King restaurant will be opening on 5th December 2008.”
We also asked Westfield to comment on the opening of the fast-food restaurant and to say whether they would be doing anything to try and prevent litter.
We received no reply from them.
Yasmine Estaphanos
24 November 2008
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