Hundreds of drivers queue as McDonalds branches reopen

Hundreds of drivers queued outside McDonald's branches as theyreopened this morning.

There were reports of waits of up to an hour-and-a-half at the fastfood giant's branch in Astley Bridge, Bolton.

But that served as no deterrent to those desperate to get their fixafter weeks of waiting despite the heat, with temperatures again over20C.

Staff in high-vis jackets could be seen directing drivers outside therestaurant, in Waters Meeting Road, as the queues snaked through thecar park and on to nearby streets.

It was one of four McDonald's branches in Bolton to open theirdrive-thrus at 11am - albeit with a limited menu.

Restaurants at Middlebrook Retail Park, Derby Street, and Chorley OldRoad were are also reported to have seen lengthy queues afterreopening for the first time since March.

It is more than two months since McDonald's decided to completely shutall of its UK restaurants as the coronavirus outbreak worsened.In May, the chain announced that it would be reopening 15 restaurantsfor delivery only.

A total of 924 drive-thrus are set to reopen between today and 4 June in line with government guidelines and with strict social distancingmeasures in place.

To manage anticipated demand, McDonald's said it will be releasing thelocations of the reopening restaurants on the morning of each day.

Announcing the changes, McDonald's said: "This is only possiblefollowing the hard work of the teams in our 44 pilot restaurants.

"Over the last fortnight, our employees, franchisees and suppliershave worked tirelessly to implement new procedures to enable safeworking so that we can now help all parts of the UK and Ireland toenjoy the return of the Big Mac."