‘A drive-thru McDonald’s right outside our school gates makes a mockery of Government’s junk food advertising ban’

Alan Fordham, chair of governors of The Bishop’s Stortford High School, writes to the Indie on plans for a McDonald’s at St James’ Park, home of the secondary’s new campus

Your online article “People’s top three priorities for St James’ Park centre – and McDonald’s is not among them” (Sept 18) rightly identified that a drive-thru McDonald’s was not a priority for the local community.

However, it did not reflect the anger and outrage we at The Bishop’s Stortford High School (TBSHS) are hearing from parents and local residents.

It is clear that the developers and McDonald’s paid no heed whatsoever to the concerns expressed through their woefully inadequate consultation held earlier this year.

In more than 1,100 responses it appears not one was in support of the McDonald’s proposal, and the developer’s consultation report failed to mention how many were opposed.

And yet there are no changes whatsoever in their plans, only woolly reassurances about heathy options on the McDonald’s menu, which any parent of a school-age child will know are unlikely to ever be troubled by one of our students.

The Government recently announced a ban on all junk food advertising online and on TV until after the watershed to tackle what it described as the “childhood obesity problem”.

In announcing the ban, the Government stated that “advertising of less healthy food and drink influences children’s dietary preferences”.

And yet our school will have the largest advertising billboard – a drive-thru McDonald’s – right outside our gates.

The unhealthy options will be directly marketed at 1,250 students each and every day. The Government’s ban is no match for such cynical placement of a McDonald’s outlet.

Additionally, we cannot underestimate the additional traffic a drive-thru take-away will generate in the local area and the health and safety risk it will pose to young people, when positioned so close to a secondary school and future primary school.

McDonald’s and the developer have singularly failed to engage directly with the school. It is clear they have no intention of seeking to consider our views or make any steps to understand or address our concerns.

We will therefore be making our case against this scheme in the strongest possible terms and I am calling on our students, and all parents/carers of our students, to make their feelings known to the East Herts Council development management committee and for our elected representatives to do the right thing and refuse this application at the earliest opportunity.

Alan J Fordham, chair of governors, The Bishop’s Stortford High School