CONTROVERSIAL plans to open a McDonald’s restaurant and drive-thru are set to be approved – despite more than 50 objections to the scheme.

District councillors are being urged to support the company’s latest proposal for a derelict site in Totton by building a multi-million-pound outlet creating 75 jobs.

It involves the site of the former Red Lion pub, which was destroyed by fire in 2010.

Initial plans for a restaurant and drive-thru were withdrawn last year after 80 protests, many of which were related to road safety.

The site is on a bend and critics claimed that vehicles leaving the premises were likely to be involved in accidents with oncoming cars.

Now McDonald’s has submitted a revised scheme due to be debated by the district council on Wednesday.

But the new application has sparked 51 objections from residents and people associated with Forest Park School, which is next door to the site in Commercial Road.

Hampshire Police, Totton and Eling Town Council and the Open Spaces Society are also calling for the scheme to be rejected.

Police claim that cars from the site turning left could collide with vehicles emerging from the school and turning right.

They are also warning that limited parking could result in people leaving their cars in the school’s access road “causing obstruction and possible conflict”.

But council planning officers say the scheme should be approved, subject to the applicant agreeing to help fund highway improvements.

A report to planners says: “Visually the proposal would add interest to the town centre.

“With regard to the highway safety aspects of the proposal the highway authority has looked at the application in some detail and advised that the proposal is acceptable.”

The report admits that the development would have an impact on staff and pupils at the school.

But it adds: “This issue alone, when balanced with the benefits of the scheme, is not sufficient to warrant refusal of the proposals.”