FAST food giants McDonalds have applied to open a £1 million restaurant on the edge of Skipton.

Craven District Council's planning department has received plans to build a 60-seater restaurant on the Skipton Ford site at Airedale Business Centre, Keighley Road.

If approved it would be the first McDonalds in Craven.

As well as the restaurant, plans drawn up by Architectural Design Services, on Newmarket Street, include a drive-through facility, car park and toilets.

The restaurant will be fully air-conditioned and the surrounding area will be attractively landscaped.

But, Skipton Chamber of Trade member Bob Wright said he hoped the plans would be refused because of the brightly coloured signage that came with the chain.

"We don't want to be advertising 'here is Skipton' by a big yellow M do we?" he said.

He thought the "brash" signs were appalling and did not fit in with Skipton's scene. He added that if the chain came without the signs he would not be so against the proposal.

Plans for the restaurant show a total floor space of 295 square metres, including 90 square metres for the restaurant.

A spokesman for McDonalds said the new development should create between 50 and 60 local, full time and part time jobs.

He added that McDonalds had always wanted to build a restaurant in the Skipton area and management was aware that people from the Craven area had to travel as far as Keighley and Shipley to the nearest outlet.

"We are very mindful of the planning process. But if the application goes through we will be looking forward to developing a restaurant in Skipton," he said.

Subject to planning permission the outlet will be built in the third quarter of this year.

Skipton Ford manager Kevin Bentley said he had offered to lease a small part of the five-acre site to McDonalds for the new restaurant.

He said that currently the land was a used vehicle display area but there was plenty of unused space that could be developed.

Mr Bentley hoped that the outlet would also attract new trade to his business. He said that McDonalds had approached him about leasing the site as they had been anxious to move into the Skipton area.

Mr Bentley thought that if plans were approved the pre-fabricated building would only take about six weeks to put up.

This is not the first time that McDonalds, founded in 1955, has tried to build a restaurant in Skipton. Back in 1998 the Herald reported that the multi-million pound burger giant was on the look out for a prime site. At that time the Airedale Centre was suggested.

Although rivals Burger King was granted permission to build its restaurant on the A65/A59 roundabout on the Skipton by-pass nothing ever came of McDonalds' ideas.