McDonald’s: Restaurant giant plans for St Leonards 24 hour store

A bun fight is brewing over a McDonald's plan to permanently extend the operating hours of an outlet to 24 hours a day with concerns raised about the smell of fast food wafting into surrounding homes.

A bun fight is brewing over plans by McDonald's to permanently extend the operating hours of a north shore Maccas to 24 hours a day, as residents raise concerns over noise, security and the smell of fast food wafting into homes.

The St Leonards McDonald's outlet would become the first in the Willoughby Council area to trade around the clock in a move the company said would meet increased demand from customers.

The store is located within the busy Forum Plaza which links St Leonards Station to the Pacific Hwy and is surrounded by high rise mixed use and residential buildings.

Plans stated the 24 hour trading would provide an “an ongoing essential service to the community”, including shift workers from Royal North Shore Hospital – located opposite the site.

“Specifically, the purpose of the trading extension is to provide key services to the community during the late night and early morning trade,” the company said.

A photo of the McDonald’s outlet.

“The proposal will provide a convenient service for local residents, visitors and passing traffic to access a food premise at any time of the day or night.

“Furthermore, the store services the demand from the neighbouring Royal North Shore Hospital and Sydney Trains passengers.”

The outlet currently has approval to trade to midnight.

Gary Coxon – who co-owns Romeo’s Pie Cafe at The Forum and also lives in a unit directly above the plaza – said he had concerns over the late night trading plan.

“The local feedback is that noise will be particularly bad on Friday and Saturday when the drunk ones come home on the train from the CBD and want something to eat and start yelling,” he said.

“The plaza is half residential and commercial and it has no direct street frontage so it’s not like it’s a stand-alone store with carparking. I don't think there’s a need for it.”

Rob Thornton, who lives above the plaza, said he had concerns over potential noise impacts and questioned demand for the extending hours on weekdays.

“A lot of shift workers (live in the units) have to be awake early and we’ll have to put up with noise and also the smell of the food 24 hours,” he said.

“It will probably bring people into the plaza that don’t usually come here and there could be anti-social behaviour.”

Sean St Clair, who sits on the Crows Nest streetscape committee, believed there could be demand for the extended operating hours due to lack of alternate late night food offering in the St Leonards and Crows Nest precinct.

A photo of the outlet.

“What I’m finding is that shops close up at about 9pm to 10pm and the area is dead and it’s hard to order a meal after that,” he said.

“The hospital would have staff finishing through the night and there are also shift workers from the hospitality trade that work from 3pm and finish at midnight and at the moment there’s nowhere for them to go.

“Maccas is probably not the best place to regularly go to but it’s convenient and some of the workers could benefit from that.”

A photo of the residential units above The Forum.

The McDonald’s outlet currently trades to midnight from Monday to Sunday but was granted a temporary 24 hour trading exception on weekends during the Covid-19 pandemic – in line with relaxed trading hour restrictions allowed under a state government planning order.

The company said permanent 24/7 trading would provide a low cost, convenient fast-food service to “serve the needs of neighbouring businesses as well as the local community”.

The McDonald’s outlet is located at The Forum which links St Leonards Station to the Pacific Hwy.

“The extended trading period under the Covid (planning) order has provided an informal extended hours operating trial to see first-hand the benefits of extended trade,” the company said.

“Throughout this period McDonald’s have demonstrated their ability to deliver an essential service to the community in a safe and secure environment, while not causing adverse impacts on the surrounding amenity”.

McDonald's said the store would have security measures such as CCTV and a protocol involving managers calling police if presented with any “anti-social or violent” customers.

Noise modelling commissioned by the company stated “sleep disturbance is not anticipated” with current noise levels in line with Environment Protection Authority guidelines.

The proposal is currently being considered by Willoughby Council and is open for public feedback.