PLANS have been submitted to open a drive-thru Burger King in Barrow.

Following The Mail's exclusive story on May 3 revealing the fast-food chain was set to return to the town a planning application has this week been submitted to Barrow Borough Council.

The former Frankie & Benny's restaurant at Hindpool Retail Park had originally been earmarked to be split between Greggs and Card Factory.

However after the landowner British Land was approached by Burger King it was seen as more preferable to have one tenant.

The plans submitted to the council reveal the restaurant will feature a drive-thru facility and an outdoor seating area.

A new pedestrian entrance will also be created and the existing service entry, to the left of the restaurant, will be retained.

Because of the need to extend the restaurant's footprint in order to create a drive-thru lane the retail park will lose 13 car parking spaces.

The site currently has 206 parking spaces.

Consultancy firm TTP, transport planning specialists, carried out parking occupancy surveys at the retail park on Saturday May 11 and Tuesday May 14.

They found a maximum occupancy of 129 spaces filled on the Saturday and 102 on the Tuesday.

The vast majority of Burger King restaurants are privately-owned franchises.

Franchisees are required to start with at least £250,000 investment and pay royalty fees.

Barrow has previously had a Burger King restaurant, in Dalton Road, which closed over a decade ago.