FAST food giant McDonald’s will look at measures to ease traffic chaos at one of its stores after a meeting with a local councillor.

Councillor Chris Jones previously said he feared somebody could be hurt or even killed as a result of irresponsible parking by takeaway drivers in the vicinity of the burger chain’s Redcar outlet, allied with large queues caused by customers using its ‘drive-thru’ facility.

Cllr Jones, who represents the West Dyke ward on Redcar and Cleveland Council, recently held a virtual meeting with representatives from McDonald’s and its delivery partner Uber Eats.

He said the meeting had “gone as well as could be expected”.

Cllr Jones, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the upcoming Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner election, said McDonald’s had pledged to supply more staff fitted with high visibility jackets whose role was to direct and co-ordinate vehicles approaching the drive through entrance.

It also planned to speak with a neighbouring business on the Redcar retail park with a view to leasing four car spaces for its takeaway partner drivers.

Cllr Jones said Uber Eats was also going to send out a communication to drivers and to instruct them to park sensibly and also be polite to members of the public.

This followed a report that a woman was verbally abused after she approached drivers to complain that an elderly man in a wheelchair had to go on the road after a footpath was blocked by vehicles.

Cllr Jones said the issues experienced in Redcar were not unique and other McDonald’s stores in the region had similar problems, including ones at Coulby Newham, Eston and Thornaby.

He said cars were still parking on pavements outside the Redcar restaurant “every which way”.

Cllr Jones said: “The delivery drivers are continuing in and out and there is still the queue regularly backing up from the drive-through.

“It would be an improvement if four spaces [for takeaway drivers] were found elsewhere, even if it were only four.”

A McDonald’s spokeswoman said: “We would like to thank Councillor Jones for his time with McDonald’s and Uber. 

“Given the current emphasis on drive-thru and delivery services due to continuing Government restrictions, we’re keen to play an active role in combating our contribution to any problems.

“We have discussed ideas to help ease the traffic and parking at McDonald’s Redcar and are currently looking into how we can implement these measures.”