A drive-thru has been approved for a popular fast-food restaurant coming to Winnersh.

A Five Guys will be opening in the car park of Showcase Cinema in Winnersh.

Now, those looking to get their fix of the American-style burgers, fries and milkshakes will soon be able to order food to take away at Showcase Cinema without entering the restaurant.

When complete, it will open as the second drive-thru Five guys in the whole of the UK.

It joins other branches of the fast-food restaurant in the Oracle, Reading, and the Lexicon, Bracknell.

Wokingham Borough Council approved plans to create two drive-thru lanes in the carpark of the cinema complex.

Five Guys applied to create two drive-thru lanes, with a lane closer to the restaurant building being used for customers who need to pay and collect their orders.

The outermost lane will then be used for customers collecting their food only.

Planning agency TTP Consulting said that the plans ‘will enable customers wishing to collect food for consumption off site to do so without needing to part and enter the restaurant’.

Situated close to Winnersh Triangle Business Park and the Winnersh Triangle Park and Ride site, the drive-thru is anticipated to draw trade from drivers passing by.

Given it is already a busy road network, the planning agent added that the drive-thru wouldn’t negatively impact traffic.

But Wokingham Borough Councillor for Winnersh, Paul Fishwick, raised concerns over potential flooding.

Councillor Fishwick said the carpark is closed off for flooding on a ‘frequent basis’.

The same issue was taken by Winnersh Parish Council, which said there could be more littering on the site because of the restaurant.

But another resident was more positive – commenting that it would be a ‘good addition to the local area and good for the local economy’.

The first drive-thru for Five Guys opened at Teesside Retail Park between Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesborough.

The Winnersh branch comes as the third for the area, with branches also in the Oracle in Reading and Bracknell’s Lexicon shopping centre.

Plans for the cinema branch first emerged in 2020, but the burger chain submitted a follow-up application two years later with amended plans.

Agents for the company said that the only change that had been made was to shift the location further into the site, and the number of parking spaces lost.

Approximately 56 parking spaces will be lost, with 579 being retained.