INTERNATIONAL fast food restaurant chain KFC is planning to open a ‘drive-thru’ branch on the edge of Wellington.

The company wants to build on the last vacant A38 frontage site in the 40-acre Westpark 26 business park, Chelston.

The half-acre plot lies between the Skylark public house and Travelodge sites and a Costa Coffee drive-through store.

A planning application has been submitted to the new unitary Somerset Council by David Partridge, of Summerfield Developments (SW) Ltd, of Taunton, which built the Westpark estate.

The company’s planning agent Mike Taylor, of Bristol-based Angus Meek Architects said KFC wanted to build a single-storey 2,680 sq ft restaurant, which would be slightly larger than half the size of the nearby McDonalds drive-through restaurant.

Mr Taylor said: “The unit has been located and orientated to afford good prominence from the main approach road.”

He said the design would feature glazing, planked cladding, and ‘vibrant vinyl applied graphics’, with dark grey window and door frames.

Mr Taylor said the building would be ‘typical for this type of use’ and in keeping with its surroundings and would enhance the existing business park.

It would have 32 car park spaces, 12 of which would be electric vehicle charging spaces, and 10 spaces for bicycle parking.

Wellington Cllr Andrew Govier, who sits on both the town council and unitary authority, welcomed the KFC plans.

Cllr Govier said: “It is positive that we are now getting national and international companies coming to the Wellington area.

“It widens the appeal of that estate to people and hopefully it will bring more people into Wellington as well.

“Once they have had their KFC they will hopefully come into the town and see what we have to offer in the shops in the town centre as well.”

No details were provided in the application concerning the number of jobs which might be created by the KFC restaurant.

But a KFC spokesperson said the company had a ‘clear pathway to the top’ with many team members reaching restaurant manager in just a few years.

The spokesperson said: “There are not many businesses where you can progress to running a large restaurant and managing a team of 40 in your early twenties.

“But our commitment to training has helped that happen for so many within KFC.”

KFC, which celebrated its 65th anniversary last year, has more than 26,000 restaurants in 145 countries around the world with 820,000 employees.

The company is currently looking for more than 500 sites on which to open across the UK and Ireland and pays up to £20,000 for introductions.

Westpark was originally built as a business and light industry employment site after being approved in 2007.

However, planners at the former Taunton Deane Borough Council and then Somerset West and Taunton Council gave a string of permissions for retail, food, and leisure uses which has changed it into a mixed use development similar to Taunton’s Hankridge estate near the M5 motorway.

Among the businesses which have already been approved are McDonalds, Costa, Subway, Budgens convenience store, two gyms, a Shell petrol station, and the medium-secure mental health Wellesley Hospital.