PLANS have been submitted for a new drive-thru restaurant at the heart of Birkenhead town centre.

The proposed development was submitted on July 26 and is located on Milton Pavement, currently occupied by Pyramids Shopping Centre which neighbours Birkenhead Market.

Currently the site is occupied by a few shops but most lie vacant due to the size of the units not meeting current demands for retailers.

Plans include removing 13 retail units, nine of which are vacant and demolishing a bridge which faces Claughton Road.

Occupied units in the area will be relocated elsewhere within the shopping centre.

The site will then be cleared and rebuilt with a new entrance to the shopping centre at Milton Pavement, a 59-space car park and drive thru restaurant with two floors.

Two retail units will remain and act as a new entrance to the Pyramids.

The new car park will serve the drive-thru and remaining spaces will be available for shoppers to use.

Car access to the development will be through a new entrance site on Claughton Road.

To access the site on foot, there will be a raised pedestrian crossing, the flow of people will be directed by landscaping.

Within the plans there is also a taxi bay, seating for shoppers and bicycle stands which planners say will be under surveillance by buildings and shoppers.

Green Party councillor for Birkenhead and Tranmere Pat Cleary has raised concerns over the proposals.

He told the Globe: "If the restaurant were to be be moved to the east side of Milton Pavement mall and mirrored so that the access faced onto the mall, the drive-thru access could then be taken from the car park roundabout and leave by the Birkenhead Market Service Road. 

"The building would then screen the ugly back view of the market, the waste storage would be at the back, the pedestrian mall would have no dangerous cross circulation with traffic.

"The proposed parking would now be sited on the present footprint of the restaurant, and would be accessed from the service area behind B&M.

"Doing this avoids the poorly arranged access to the roundabout, all the nebulous and conflicting circulation, maintains Milton Pavement as a way into the Pyramids, and would allow some much better landscape detailing to enhance the maintained Mall access. 

"Given that there is so much parking around the Pyramids I would have thought that the surplus land would be much better used to create an attractive landscape setting for the restaurant and entrance to the shopping area.

"Some of the coffee houses in the precinct have used their external space for sitting outside, admittedly for smokers, but it does make the precinct look more welcoming."

Comments are still open for people to have their say regarding this proposal.

Owners of the Pyramids Shopping Centre have been contacted but declined to comment.