Highways, which can often hold up a planning application, have given the green light to the application to turn the old Argos store on Midsomer Norton High Street into McDonald's.

The department can often break an application if they think a development has not carefully considered the impact a business, or a lot of homes, will have on the existing road and levels of traffic.

But they posted on the planning site, just before Christmas, and gave their approval to the application.

They also added that concerns about accidents along that stretch of road, which already has a busy supermarket one side and a Domino's pizza place opposite, were in fact due to the parking bays opposite Lidl.

They wrote: " The applicant has provided more detail in relation to the collisions at these locations, and concludes that the collisions which occurred near to the Lidl Access were associated with the on-street parking bays located opposite the access, not the access itself, and that the collisions which occurred near to the junction with Excelsior Terrace occurred as isolated incidents and as such are no indicative of a highway safety issue which should be addressed by the proposed development. "

However the application, which you can follow under  23/03656/FUL on the B&NES planning site, may have won over the roads, but in the skies it might be a different matter.

Environmental Health say they are concerned with level of noise, and again they have put in a request to find out exact operating hours and for when waste services will be working alongside when there will be deliveries.

They want : "confirmation of timings of hours use for public, hours of operation for staff and plant as well as waste collection and delivery timings to be confirmed by the developer. "

What about that bird in the sky ?

And then .. there is the issue of gulls.

No one currently knows how many seagulls and breeding pairs there are in Midsomer Norton, anything up to 183 colonies - but pretty much everyone agree they are a pest.

The officer wrote: " I would also recommend that the developer submits a Gull Management Plan before planning permission is granted. The plan should demonstrate that the applicant has consider the structure and design of the building, accessibility to roofs and other unoccupied areas, gull proofing mitigation measures, waste disposal facilities and a maintenance programme to ensure there is no detrimental impact on amenities of future occupiers arising from gulls. "