Drive-thru planning trends
Councils received 218 drive-thru applications in the 12 months to September 2026, well under half the 549 in the year to August 2017.
Drive-thru applications since 2016
Drive-thru applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredThe count more than halved, the share fell less
Total applications fell too, so the drive-thru share fell less than the count. It peaked at 8.8 in every 10,000 applications in the 12 months to August 2017 and is now 5.0. The drive-thru planning index is 75: three quarters of its 2016 share.
North East high, London low
From 2023 to 2025 the North East had 16 drive-thru applications in every 10,000, against 5.8 across the UK, with Northern Ireland on 11 and Wales on 10. London had 0.8, from 18 applications. Glasgow has the most since 2016, with 53.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 55 drive-thru applications in Q3 2026: 5.3 in every 10,000 applications, against 4.9 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 8% higher than a year earlier.
Drive-thru applications each quarter
55 in Q3 2026, against 54 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 5.3 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 4.9 a year earlier.
Where drive-thru applications concentrate
By region
Drive-thru applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Glasgow
Scotland · 20 in every 10,000 53 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 7.7 in every 10,000 52 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 7.9 in every 10,000 51 -
Somerset
South West · 8.9 in every 10,000 51 -
Liverpool
North West · 16 in every 10,000 43 -
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 6.9 in every 10,000 41 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 9.9 in every 10,000 40 -
Fife
Scotland · 14 in every 10,000 37 -
Cornwall
South West · 4.7 in every 10,000 36 -
North Lanarkshire
Scotland · 32 in every 10,000 36
Latest drive-thru applications
- Citrus Hotel, London Road, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry Refurbishment and reconfiguration including partial demolition of existing hotel building to provide a 67-bedroom hotel (Use Class C1) and erection of a drive-thru coffee shop (Use Class E), together with associated engineering operations, site layout alterations, car parking, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, servicing, landscaping, drainage, plant and ancillary works.
- Taw Garages Ltd Victoria Road Barnstaple Devon Change of use of existing car showroom to costa coffee unit (class E/sui generis) with drive-thru lane, car parking, landscaping & associated works
- McDonald's, Unit 8 Andover Trade Park Joule Road Portway Business Park Andover Hampshire Extension on drive thru elevation, installation of door, and redecoration
- Harveys Drive Through, Waterloo Road, Waterloo, Huddersfield Certificate of lawfulness for proposed change of use from drive-through restaurant for assembly of machines/equipment
- 29 Glendermott Road, Waterside, Londonderry Proposed Conveyor Car Wash And Drive Thru Coffee Shop, Valeting Bays, EV Charging Points and Car Parking And Associated Site Works And Landscaping.
- Land to the north of Horton Road, south of London Road and west of Wellington Drive, Devizes Hybrid planning application comprising full planning permission for the construction of an industrial / warehouse unit (Classes E(g)(iii), B2 and B8), a foodstore (Class E), a comparison goods retail warehouse (Class E), a drive-thru coffee shop unit (Class E / Sui Generis), formation of vehicular and pedestrian access and servicing arrangements, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, car parking, landscaping and associated works; and outline planning permission for an industrial / warehouse development (Classes E(g)(iii), B2 and B8) of up to 4,265 sq. m with all matters reserved except access
Questions
How many drive-thru planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 3,775 since January 2016, 218 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to August 2017.
Where are the most drive-thrus being applied for?
Glasgow, North Yorkshire and Birmingham have received the most since 2016.
Has planning policy on drive-thrus changed?
Glasgow adopted a design note on drive-through operations in November 2022. In England, policy HC5 of the 2026 National Planning Policy Framework tells councils to refuse hot food takeaways within walking distance of schools outside town centres. Drive-thru coffee shops are not hot food takeaways.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
The count includes new signs, cladding and alterations at existing drive-thrus as well as new outlets.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names drive-thrus or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent drive-thru applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The drive-thrus planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Glasgow City Council adopted a non-statutory design note on drive-through operations in November 2022. glasgowworld.com
- Policy HC5 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2026) tells councils to refuse hot food takeaways within reasonable walking distance of schools outside designated town centres. gov.uk