Edinburgh Burger King given permission for 24-hour drive-thru at Fort Kinnaird

At a licensing board meeting on Monday, March 31, the fast food joint in Fort Kinnaird was given permission to run its drive-thru all night seven days a week, with the indoor restaurant closing at 11pm. The location currently opens at 10am and closes at 11pm every day of the week.

A lawyer representing Burger King told councillors the firm was applying for 14 of its restaurants across Scotland to get all-night drive-thru trading, including the Fort Kinnaird site.

He pointed to the example of a nearby McDonald’s with a 24 hour drive-thru as a case where a similar application was granted.

According to the lawyer, the target market for the all night drive-thru is late shift and blue light workers trying to find food overnight, as well as motorists travelling up the nearby A1.

He said: “What [Burger King] sees is shift workers, taxi drivers, blue light services, people who won’t be able to get a hot bite to eat.

“It’s a short diversion [off the A1] to nip off and visit this. It’s completely different to the types of customer movement you would get in a tiny city centre type scenario.”

The Burger King drive-thru at Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh. | LDR

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Councillors discussed concerns over impact on a set of residences near the Burger King site.

Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Ross asked the lawyer: “I’m not familiar with the exact location within Fort Kinnaird, with the premise, but perhaps you might know how far away the nearest residential area is?”

The lawyer replied: “Rough stick, you’re talking about half a mile. I don’t think there’s anything that’s really next to it or nearby.”

Labour councillor Margaret Graham replied, saying that there were a series of cottages nearby to the location on Newcraighall Road. These houses sit about 120 metres northeast of the Burger King’s location.

She continued: “You would have to take a quite convoluted route to avoid these cottages in quite a lot of circumstances, depending on what part of the city you are coming from.”

Committee convener and Conservative councillor Jo Mowat replied: “I think it depends where you are coming from. There are other ways that people would access that part [of the site].

“I do not pretend to be an expert on the necessity of driving through at these hours, but I hear that there is a demand for that for people who are shift working or working late.”

She proceeded to ask a Police Scotland representative present if there were policing issues with the 24 hour McDonald’s nearby, who told her there were none.

Councillors then agreed the granting of a late hours catering license, which allows the company to keep the drive-thru open for 24 hours, or other hours that they wish.