PLANS to build a new drive-thru Starbucks and EV charging hub in Bradford city centre have been approved, with planners saying it will “support the city centre economy". 

The development will be built on a long-vacant site off Valley Road and opposite Forster Square Retail Park – a site that has previously been allocated for housing.

As well as the drive-thru coffee shop, the development will include 24 EV charging bays, making it one of the biggest car charging hubs in the city.

The plans were submitted by Metalcraft Development LTD earlier this year and approved this week.

The company had already been permitted to create a smaller EV charging hub made up of 11 charging points on the site – which is currently allocated as a car park.

The planning application said the development would provide car charging in a “highly accessible location” in the city centre.

It added: “The proposals also include the delivery of a drive-thru coffee shop to the eastern boundary of the site, which will form a complementary addition to the EV charging bays, providing an amenity for customers whilst they charge their vehicles, as well as for visitors and employees of the existing commercial and retail units within the vicinity of the application site.”

It said the work “represents significant capital investment in the local area and will secure the comprehensive redevelopment of an underutilised surface level car park". 

Despite the site being a short distance from Bradford Forster Square rail station, the retail park and The Broadway shopping centre, it is an area of the city characterised by large, vacant sites and stalled developments.

It is also part of the city that has been earmarked for new housing developments. In Bradford Council’s City Centre Area Action Plan, the site is included in an area that the authority said could provide 600 homes.

The planning officers who approved the scheme acknowledged that the site had been allocated for city centre housing.

They said: “Within the Little Germany and Cathedral Quarter, there are several other sites allocated for housing.

“The capacity to provide housing within the wider allocation is therefore not severely prejudiced by the proposed development.

“The proposed development would also make use of a vacant site that has been undeveloped for many years and will facilitate the creation of jobs, thereby supporting the town centre economy.”

One of the conditions of approval is that Starbucks can only open between 7am and 11pm.