McDonald’s has come under fire after opening a fifth restaurant in a single town – all within seven miles of each other.
Basingstoke in Hampshire, which has a population of of just over 100,000, is now one of the towns with the most McDonald’s per person in the UK with all five restaurants within seven miles of each other.
It comes after McDonald’s announced plans in August to flood Britain’s high streets with 200 new restaurants in the next four years.
In its biggest expansion since 2002, the fast food chain has announced a £1billion investment with a view to ‘supporting successful high streets’.
However, nutrition coach Matthew Cowell has been spurred spurred into action as he has started staging demonstrations dressed up as a doctor after the fast food giant unveiled its latest branch in Basingstoke.
Wearing surgical scrubs and a stethoscope to make his point, Mr Cowell has questioned the opening of the newest branch at the start of the month, the second in less than six months.
‘The fourth one opened in May, and that kind of caught my attention and when the fifth one was introduced so quickly after, that just made me think the town is moving in the wrong direction,’ he said.
The 40-year-old went to the new McDonald’s restaurant on its opening day, October 3, and handed out leaflets about preventing heart disease.
‘I think you can drive around Basingstoke in about 15 minutes and you can see all five,’ he said.
‘It doesn’t sit right with me, the manner in which we have a health crisis and at the same time we’re making it harder for ourselves with this.
‘There’s a real lack of healthy options around here which makes it even worse.’
Mr Cowell, a lifestyle and nutrition coach, was pleasantly surprised by the reaction he got on the day, though he has had a mixed reaction online with one person telling him ‘you look like you need a cheeseburger, you’re too skinny’.
‘One lady said you’re the sign I’m looking for, I’m not going to go in,’ he said.
However, he could tell that some people wanted to be left to make their own decisions about where they eat.
‘I respected that, and I wasn’t looking to frog march them out of there and intervene.’
On the aim of his protest, he said: ‘I would like it to make a substantial difference with people thinking a bit more about the lifestyle they lead, the nutrition they eat and maybe not visiting places like this so often.’
He thinks a gym, a supermarket, or ‘a restaurant that at least had non processed or natural options’ should have been introduced to the area rather than another McDonald’s.
Mr Cowell, who sees people struggling to lose weight all the time because of his job, has suggested coming back to the McDonald’s and doing a health quiz with people going to the restaurant.
‘If they get the questions wrong they have to go and get lunch somewhere else,’ he said.
McDonald’s new £1bn announcement, made in a report marking the brand’s 50th year in Britain, represents a marked increase on the £618million invested in the five years to 2023.
The rollout will test new restaurant formats, including smaller branches, and is set to create some 24,000 jobs.
The fast food chain already owns more than 1,400 UK restaurants, around 80 per cent of which are owned by franchises, employing over 170,000 Brits, making it the country’s biggest private employer of young people.
McDonald’s has been approached by for comment.